


UNDERGROUND

by stormy1990



Series: Tokyo Fight Club Chronicles [2]
Category: Johnny's Entertainment, Johnny's Jr., Johnny's WEST, KAT-TUN (Band), Kis-My-Ft2 (Band), Sexy Zone, SixTONES (Band)
Genre: Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-06-04
Packaged: 2018-05-26 11:25:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 51,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6236773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormy1990/pseuds/stormy1990
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Half a year after Kentaro had joined the North Tokyo fight club everything was about to change again with the arrival of a new fighter. While Nikaido tried to solve everything through staying silent as always, Kentaro needed to know more about Nikaido's past, which resulted in dark memories getting brought back to the surface and a dangerous, long forgotton shadow catching up to them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For part two it's the same as for part one: Please don't see this fic as a historical correct story, because it isn't! In this part I use some medical treatments, which would never have worked in real life (especially at that time), but therefore it is a fic and not a medical doctor essay :P
> 
> And yes I know that not all of my Osaka ppl are really from Osaka, sorry about that ;)
> 
> Anyways have fun reading, but be prepared for spelling and grammar mistakes!

"You don't have any more tough words left? Come on, you had so much to say earlier, I'm waiting for a little bit more entertainment." Fuma shouted at the group of drunken young men standing in front of him. After they had made fun out of his hair color and his appearance as he had walked over to the bar he had already sent one of them flying through the room.

"Aren't you going to stop him?" Kentaro asked Nikaido worried as the fight was about to escalate.

"Why should I? It's not like I'm anyone's babysitter, just because we go together for a club!" Nikaido said cold, leaning at the wall with his back taking another sip of his beer observing Fuma's fight with a calm expression.

"I'm not talking about babysitting someone, but helping a friend!" Kentaro replied annoyed and took Nikaido’s glass out of his hand making the older be groan in annoyance. "And actually you came here for babysitting, because if I remember correctly you don't like those clubs, but as soon as I said I'll be going with Fuma you changed your mind."

"That's just because I'm your protector AND if you like it or not in your current state you are not really good in defending yourself!" Nikaido said serious stepping closer putting his hand on Kentaro's rips making the boy flinch and slashing away his hand. At the last tournament Fukka had hit him quite hard so that his rips would need some time to heal and with this tournament being just one day behind them, the injury still made a lot of trouble.

"Exactly because you know I can't help him, you should go instead!"

"Why? He seems to have fun!"

Kentaro shook his head on his stubborn behavior even though he knew he was right. Kentaro didn't doubt that Fuma could win, but he knew that he would totally get carried away after it and they didn't need to get into any other problems, because Nakai would definitely punish them if they would.

"Hey!" As Kentaro spent attention toward Fuma for a moment Nikaido snatched his beer back out of his hand with a triumphing smile.

"As soon as he is done we will leave before the police arrives."

"Okay you know what, I think I will just help him, because then you have no other choice but to interfere."

"Why do you-" Fuma clashed into him before Nikaido could end his sentence spilling his beer over both their clothes.

"Fuma are you okay?" Kentaro asked worried, but the boy was about to dash forward again ready to completely lose control. It was Nikaido though who grabbed his wrist holding him back. For a moment Kentaro thought that Nikaido was about to drag him out the club, but then he saw his annoyed look and he rolled his eyes at him before he even took action.

"You stupid boys!" He growled in a low voice and Fuma automatically stepped out of his way as Nikaido pulled up his sleeves as he approached the boys. "You will pay for this! Do you know how much a fucking beer in this club costs?"

"Really? Because of that he interferes and when I ask him to, he doesn't?" Kentaro asked kind of disappointed shaking his head at his protector while he was sending the boys to the ground one after the other until the rest of them fled.

"He just needs a reason to play hero without it looking like he would worry for you." Fuma comforted him, smiling as he looked kind of satisfied at his senpai's fighting.

"Will he ever stop trying to act all cool even though everyone knows that we are together?"

"You think so?" Fuma asked with a chuckle, gaining a smile from Kentaro in return.

"No, never."

Half a year had passed since Nikaido had kissed him in front of everyone. Half a year in which a lot had happened, but Nikaido still tried to act completely neutral around him when other people were around.

"Let's run!" Nikaido suddenly shouted at the two and grabbed Kentaro's wrist to make him follow him as he dashed after Fuma out the backdoor of the club as the police showed up in the entrance. They ran around a few corners before they finally stopped waiting if the police would be following them or not.

"That was fun!" Fuma shouted getting a slap on the back of his head from Nikaido as a response.

"I'll show you what's fun when I will tell Ueda later about your behavior and then look smiling from the side of the ring as he will turn your training into hell as a punishment."

"You wouldn't tell him! Would he?" Fuma asked Kentaro with a panicked look, but as the boy didn't answer, his hands on his knees looking to the ground he hit Nikaido on the shoulder to signalize him that something wasn’t right.

"Kentaro, are you okay?" Nikaido asked worried walking over to him, but he could see that the boy was in pain.

"Sorry, my injury from the last fight is still making a few problems." He waved it off, but as he tried to make a few steps he started to feel dizzy and Nikaido took a hold on his arms as he was about to lose balance. As he felt the cold and sweaty skin of his arms he finally realized what was going on.

"A few problems? Kentaro you have a fever! Why didn't you say that you felt that bad earlier already?" Nikaido scolded him as he took his face in his hands and felt his high temperature.

"I would never have asked you to come with me if I would've known!" Fuma said apologizing, but Kentaro shook his head.

"Don't worry, I didn't feel that bad the whole evening. I guess our spontaneous getaway out of the club is at fault."

"Whatever, we have to bring you back!" Nikaido wanted to carry him, but Kentaro let out painful gasp as he moved his arm around his rips.

"Great, because of Fukazawa I can't even carry you."

"It's okay, I can walk there myself, it's not that far."

Nikaido looked at him with an angry glare, but he knew that there was no other way. They started moving slowly back to the club and Nikaido put his hand into Kentaro's belt just in case he would suddenly faint.

As they arrived Fuma ran in first already preparing a bed in the med room knowing that the doc wasn't around this late. Nikaido put Kentaro carefully down on the bed and the boy was more than happy about finally being able to lie down. Fuma gave him a glass of water and some of the medications the doc had stored in the room. 

"Sorry for ruining the trip!" Kentaro said after taking the medicine and lying down again, but Fuma just shrugged his shoulders.

"It wasn't so much fun anyways. Let's choose another club next time."

The next moment Fuma held his hands over his head whining, after Nikaido had suddenly hit him.

"Wrong answer!"

"What?"

"Kentaro has nothing to apologize for. You were the one getting into a fight."

"But you continued it!"

"After you could obviously not handle it on your own!"

"Don't make me laugh, I had everything under control."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, really!"

They had moved closer with each word until their foreheads almost touched, but Kentaro's hawk broke them back to reality and they stepped back.

"You know if you want to fight do it tomorrow at the training, but I would like to sleep!" Kentaro scolded them.

"I'm not leaving you alone tonight!" Nikaido replied serious, but Kentaro just smiled at him taking his hand.

"I didn't say you have to. I just want to rest without someone fighting next to me. You can stay if you want."

"I think I will take my leave then." Fuma said in a suddenly apologizing voice almost running towards the door.

"What was that?" Nikaido asked as Fuma had left the room.

Kentaro looked at him with a kind of weird smile on which Nikaido raised an eyebrow at him.

"You know why Fuma always drags everyone out the club lately to keep him company?"

Nikaido's impatient look signaled him that he had not a single clue and wasn't in the mood for a guessing game either, okay he was never in the mood for games.

"One of our new fighters is at fault. You remember Kento the new fighter in the 1st class? Fuma is as annoyed of him the whole time that he tries to get out to distract himself as much as possible."

"Why isn't he just ignoring him?" Nikaido asked serious not getting why it should bother Fuma so much.

"I didn’t ignore you either!" Kentaro replied with a light smile.

"That was because you- Oh, you are telling me he gets annoyed by him out of the same reason you got annoyed by me?"

Kentaro didn't have to answer as Nikaido put his face into his hands for a moment, sighting deeply.

"Nakai is going to burn down the whole club if we all get going like this."

"Then we should enjoy our time here before he really freaks out." Kentaro said teasing, pulling on Nikaido's shirt so that the latter moved down to him resting his hands next to his face.

"I thought you wanted to rest?" Nikaido asked playfully, but didn't stop the boy as he reached out for him to stroke over his face until his hands found his hair to pull him even closer.

"Not before I get a good night kiss."

Nikaido chuckled, but as Kentaro tried to close the distance between them Nikaido resisted so that Kentaro looked at him questioning as he took the boy's hands away from him.

"What's wrong?" Kentaro asked worried as Nikaido looked at him way too serious.

"Payment time is not for you to decide!" He replied in a dark voice and Kentaro blinked a few times before he realized what was going on.

"You are right. Then how about you just leave me alone for now, it's not like you are of any good here for tonight." Kentaro turned away from him trying hard to make his voice sound as serious as possible.

But as expected it didn't take long until Nikaido sat down next to him and turned him around on his shoulder.

"Who said I didn't want to receive my payment today?" Again Nikaido leant down to him, but this time Kentaro didn't reach out for him.

"It's not like I'm allowed to stop you, you know?" Kentaro said after they didn't move for a moment, but this time he couldn't keep his act up as his lips curled up a little bit and Nikaido shook his head as he also had to crack a smile. They both started laughing as they realized how bad their acting was.

"Don't laugh!" Nikaido scolded him as he finally got a grip on himself again. "We have to keep the protector part up in front of everyone else and like this it will definitely not work."

"Then stop over-acting so much or I can't take this serious."

"I'm not over-acting! I'm just as I'm to everyone else except towards you of course."

"Yeah with a little bit too much effort. You are a serious character, but that doesn't mean that you have to speak like a 60 year old smoker with lung cancer."

Again they both started laughing, but Kentaro tried hard to stop himself, because his injury started hurting again and is fever made him feel dizzy.

"Okay I guess that's enough practicing for today." Nikaido said about to get up to prepare a bed next to Kentaro, but the boy grabbed his sleeve before he could move away.

“Didn’t you forget something?”

“That would be?” Nikaido asked teasing knowing of course what Kentaro wanted.

“Your payment!”

“Maybe I don’t need it today.”

Kentaro gave him an angry glare, but Nikaido knew that he should stop his teasing for today. Before Kentaro could get any angrier at him he leant down and as their lips touched Kentaro put his arms around the older one’s neck making sure that he wouldn’t just back off right away. Nikaido smiled against his lips and responded with his hands in the boy’s hair as he moved his lips longing over his, licking over them waiting for the younger one to part his lips for him and he didn’t have to wait for long.

Kentaro escaped a disapproving groan as the other one backed off again, but he had said himself that he wanted to rest so he couldn’t really scold him. But again he held Nikaido back as he wanted to move away.

“You know the bed is big enough for two!” He said with a light smile and Nikaido shook his head scolding, but laid down next to him nevertheless as the boy had made space for him.

“But don’t think I will lay here until you wake up tomorrow!”

“Then I will just see you as a one night stand.” Kentaro mumbled against Nikaido’s chest as he moved closer against the older one’s warm body.

***

"Are you sure that it's a good idea to run around already?" Taiga asked Kentaro worried the next afternoon after he had heard what had happened from Fuma and wanted to take a look at Kentaro as they had a break from training, but ran into him as he walked out the training room.

"It's not like I'm in such a bad condition that I’m not allowed to move. My fever is better and the doc said as long as I don't overdo it and watch out that I don't get any impact on my rips I can normally walk around."

Taiga looked at him with a raised eyebrow as if he wouldn't really believe him and who would, because the boy was still looking like a walking ghost.

"Oh Kentaro, how are you? You have a perfect timing."

Both boys turned towards Nakai who stood behind them smiling as always.

"I'm fine, thanks. Perfect timing for what?" Kentaro asked confused, but as Nakai opened the door to the training room a man which had stood behind him came into his sight.

"I'll explain everything now, so come on in. You as well Kitayama!"

"After you!" Kitayama said towards the boys with a bright smile and even though he didn't seem dangerous to them at first sight there was something that felt weird about him. As they had all entered, Kentaro walked automatically over to Nikaido who of course scolded him right away for not staying in the med room. As Nakai spoke up again, they turned towards him, and Kentaro noticed that Kitayama was looking at them or more at Nikaido.

"Let me introduce our newest fighter: Kitayama Hiromitsu! He will fight already in the next tournament, which is in 2 months. For that match the no.1 club from Osaka will come to Tokyo."

"Oh no, that means a lot of chaos." Ueda said annoyed making a few of the new ones look at him confused.

"Isn't it like any other tournament?" Kochi asked, but Ueda shook his head.

"When a club from that far away comes, then we have to take them in for at least 3 days."

"Great, let’s see how many of them will survive.” Fuma growled on the thought of having his opponents running around their club without being allowed to hit them.

"Kitayama will fight in the 5th class."

Their conversation stopped suddenly on Nakai's announcement and Senga was the first to react, with a kind of disbelieving chuckle.

"Seriously? So he comes from another club?"

"No he is new, but I saw him fight and trust me when I say he belongs in your class."

Nikaido had crossed his arms in front of his chest, but didn't comment on his announcement.

"Ueda, please have a training match with him and Nikaido after the official training!"

"With Nikaido?" Ueda asked almost shocked, but Nakai seemed more than serious and he just nodded before he left again.

The rest of the training continued with everyone staring at Kitayama from time to time who trained at the punching bags with a really annoyed looking Senga.

"Are you going to be okay?" Kentaro asked Nikaido after a while as the older one didn't even look at Kitayama at all, just concentrating on his own training.

"Who knows…"

Kentaro was almost shocked by his answer, because he was sure that he would scold him for even asking such a stupid question, but it seemed like he was aware of Kitayama's strength. If Nakai would tell them to fight, he must be good. As Kentaro looked over to Kitayama again the latter had taken a break walking over to the table to take a water bottle from it. As he turned around their eyes met and the older one gave him a brief smile and even though there was nothing suspicious about it in the first place, something about him felt weird, but Kentaro couldn't say if it was dangerous or not.

"Nikaido, Kitayama, are you ready?" Ueda asked after he had ended the fight between Taiga and Kento, which were more than happy about the break.

"One more round and he would have gotten defeated again, because he is just not concentrating enough." Fuma growled looking after Kento and stepped next to Kentaro.

"How about you teach him how to do it then?" Taiga asked teasing as he had walked over to them.

"That would be too much effort."

"Then stop complaining."

"I'm not complaining."

"Yeah, sure. You are totally fine with him. How about you have the next training match with him then?" Taiga replied teasing, but stopped the conversation as Nikaido and Kitayama got ready for their fight.

"Will he be okay?" Kentaro asked Senga, hoping that he would get a clear answer from him, but he just shrugged his shoulders and his reaction made him even more nervous. Nikaido was their strongest fighter, but that didn't mean that a new fighter couldn't be better than him and even though it was just a training match and not even his own fight he felt nauseous.

“Okay then let’s see why Nakai brought you here.” Ueda said as he had stepped out the ring giving them the okay to start.

They started circling each other and Kentaro realized right away that something felt different from the other times he saw Nikaido fight, but he was too tense to concentrate on tactics. For now he hoped the fight would end without any problems.

"Go ahead! I give you the first punch." Nikaido said confident, but instead of his usual open stand he stayed in a closed stance already seeming tense.

"Oh how nice of you, but I'm not sure if I should follow that invitation."

They continued staring at each other for a while and for the first time since Kentaro had entered the club he saw how Nikaido attacked first. He would normally never do the first step, but the fact that he did it showed that Kitayama had something special which made Nikaido forget his pride or maybe his caution. His attacks were fast, strong and accurate, but the same applied for Kitayama's blocking. He didn't dodge at all, he blocked all the attacks and then he countered with a punch so fast that Kentaro flinched as he thought for a moment that Nikaido wouldn't be able to dodge it, but at the last moment he was able to turn to the side. Kitayama's fist was just inches away from his face and for a moment they both froze to the spot.

"Wow, I'm not sure if I've ever seen a fight like that before, not even in the 5th class." Fuma said astonished, but Kentaro couldn't share his excitement. The fact that Kitayama was that good made him worry even more. Nikaido never lost until now, except for the one fight against Senga, so Kentaro wondered what would happen if he would lose against a newbie in a training match.

Nikaido took a step back and Kentaro could see the change in his eyes, he was pissed that was for sure. But there was something else in his eyes which Kentaro couldn’t really define, also because it got hard for him to concentrate on the match as he realized that he wasn’t as fit as he thought he would.

"Surprised?" Kitayama asked with a smile, but Nikaido wouldn't allow himself to lose his focus. Instead of responding to his teasing he started another attack, this time moving even faster and it was for sure that when he would land one hit it would cause not just light damage. But again it was like Kitayama could foresee all his moves. Their fighting styles were alike, but with the difference that Nikaido wasn't able to read Kitayama's next attack. Kitayama was about to start a counter attack again, but this time Nikaido was fast enough to block it and strike himself. His punch hit Kitayama into the stomach making him bend over gasping. Nikaido tried to keep his attacks up, but even though his punch was definitely pretty hard Kitayama managed to dodge his next attack trying to get some distance between them.

"No cool line this time?" Nikaido asked serious as Kitayama held one hand to his stomach circling around Nikaido again.

"I'll spare them for the moment when I start my last attack."

"You mean the last one before you get knocked out?"

Kitayama just replied with a low chuckle before he dashed forward. For a moment their fight was even, both hitting some good punches and kicks, but none of them backed off again.

"Kentaro are you okay?" Tegoshi asked suddenly stepping next to him putting his hand on his shoulder.

"Yes, why do you ask?" Kentaro asked confused trying hard to focus on the fight, but now that Tegoshi made him lose focus for a moment he realized that he felt a little bit dizzy.

"You look kind of pale, don't you think it's better to get back to the med room?"

"After the fight I will go." Kentaro said nodding, trying to ignore the exhaustion of his body and concentrate on the fight.

Again they both attacked at the same time blocking each other's attacks. If looks could kill they would have both lost through their stares already. But while Nikaido was concentrated and trying hard to not lose his focus, Kitayama still wore this confident light smile and Kentaro wondered how he could stay so calm.

"Oh shit!" Senga growled before the actual attack even happened. Nikaido had lost balance after a counter attack and Kitayama used his weak moment to spin around and kick him against the neck. In the last moment Nikaido raised an arm in defense, but the force brought him down on one knee and Kitayama wouldn't let off him now that he got the upper hand. He attacked nonstop and even though Nikaido was able to get back on his feet again he had no other choice than dodge his attacks until his back reached the ropes.

"Watch out!" Kentaro knew that Nikaido had seen the attack coming as well, but this time he wasn't fast enough to dodge or block it. Kitayama landed a punch to Nikaido's face and as Kitayama even landed a kick afterwards making Nikaido crash back into the ropes Kentaro wondered if Ueda would stop the fight before one of them would get seriously hurt. For a moment it seemed like the fight would be settled, but to everyone's surprise Nikaido blocked the next attack and countered with such a hard punch that it took Kitayama almost off his feet.

"Oh a last comeback?" Kitayama asked teasing, stroking over his cheek where a red bruise got visible.

Nikaido just kept staring at him before he dashed in for another attack, but then he heard shouting behind him right before Kitayama was about to block and counter. They both stopped their punches inches in front of each other and Nikaido swirled around as he realized what the reason for the shouting was. His eyes grew wide as he saw that Kentaro was lying on the ground unconsciously, Tegoshi next to him trying to lift him up and shouting out for him.

"Kentaro!" Nikaido didn't even care if Ueda would stop the fight or not. It came naturally that he jumped out the ring lifting Kentaro up in his arms.

"I'll bring him to the med room," was all he said towards Ueda and the latter just nodded knowing that he wouldn't continue the fight even if he would tell him to.

"Okay that was it with the training for today." Ueda announced and Taiga rushed after Nikaido right away. As Nikaido passed the ring he looked up at Kitayama which gave him a weird smile. It didn't seem like he was making fun out of him, but more like if he had just found out something interesting, but for the moment Nikaido’s priority was Kentaro, he could worry about Kitayama later and unfortunately he knew that he had to.


	2. Chapter 2

As Kentaro opened his eyes he found himself in the med room again. Panicked he sat up making everything spin around him.

"Do you always have to jump up like this?" Taiga scolded him as he had almost fell off the chair next to his bed on Kentaro’s sudden movements.

"Where's Nikaido? How did the fight end? Is he okay?"

"Woah calm down. Everything is okay, don't worry. He stopped the fight as you fainted."

"You're kidding me?" Kentaro blinked at him in disbelieve. The evening before he had lectured him about keeping up the protector part in front of everyone and then he got emotional at the training and stopped the fight because of him?

"He really has changed over this year hasn't he?" Taiga asked with a faint smile.

"Yes, he definitively has, but I'm not sure if all the changes are for the better." Kentaro admitted worried.  "You think there will be problems now that Kitayama entered the club?"

"To be honest I don't know, but Ueda seems to be worried about that as well. We have seen his strength and sure we should be happy to have such an awesome fighter in our club, but there is something about him that bothers Ueda."

"And let me guess he doesn't really know what it is, but it seems like it could bring a lot of trouble and that Nikaido will be part of this trouble if we don’t watch out!?"

Taiga looked at him as he would have just read his mind so it wasn't just Kentaro who had sensed something weird about him.

"I should talk to Nikaido later." Kentaro finally said, but laid down again for now not in the mood to get up to faint again right away.

"Maybe a good idea he seemed really bothered after the fight, but you better rest until tomorrow. I will send him to you after the training."

"Thank you."

Kentaro couldn't really calm down that night, but he was sure that it was the same for Nikaido. He wanted to talk to him, but as Taiga had suggested it would be the best to wait until the next day.

As he had finally drifted off into a light sleep he heard the door open, so he forced himself to wake up, but as he turned around looking at the person standing next to his bed he tensed.

"What do you want?" Kentaro asked in a dangerous voice looking up at Kitayama.

"Oh nothing special, I just wanted to take a look and see how you feel."

"In the middle of the night?"

"I thought like that no one would interfere."

Kentaro automatically backed off as he took another step towards to the bed.

"Interfere what?" He asked, demanding his voice to stay steady.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not going to do anything to you, if that is what you think. When I got it right, Nikaido is your protector so it would be more than stupid to attack you at the moment."

"Then what do you want?"

"Asking something."

"That would be?" Kentaro asked impatient, still not sure if talking was really the only reason he came for.

"Do you know about Nikaido's past before he entered the fight club?"

"What? Why would you ask me something like that? Do you know each other?" Kentaro knew that he had to be careful with what he would tell him, but Kitayama shook his head, smiling at him.

"No, don't worry. It's nothing like that. I just wondered, because the strongest fighters often have the darkest past, you know. But if you don't want to tell me or don't know I won't bother you again. Sorry for interrupting your sleep." With a light bow he left the room without another word. After that Kentaro couldn't sleep anymore at all. Now he had even more reasons to speak to Nikaido as soon as possible.

***

"Hey how are you feeling?" Senga asked as he entered the med room the next afternoon after the training.

"Way better, sorry for worrying you all so much yesterday."

"Don't worry about it." Senga stopped in front of him looking to the ground shifting.

"And?"

"Eh?"

"I doubt that you came here to just ask me how I am."

"Right-"

"Senga spill it out you make me nervous. Did something happen?"

"More or less. Taiga told Nikaido after the training to go and see you, because you obviously want to speak to him, but-" Senga bit his lip, but Kentaro was about to get angry so he sat down on his bed to continue.

"Don’t ask me what exactly is going on, but he told Taiga that he didn't want to go, but of course Taiga insisted and then they started screaming at each other until Ueda had to interfere and Nikaido dashed out the room."

Kentaro needed a moment to get what he had just said. Nikaido had refused to see him, okay that was something he could somehow understand. He tried hard to draw the line between protecting and private matters after all, especially with a new fighter around. But that he started screaming at Taiga didn't just surprise him, but also worried him. Nikaido wasn't the type to lose his temper out of such reasons normally.

"Where is he now?"

"He left the building earlier, maybe he went for a bar or something. He normally never leaves the club just like this, so I don’t really have a clue where he has gone off to."

"Do you think his reaction is because of the fight with Kitayama?"

"Not sure, but whatever it is, it really bothers him and like this it will be hard for him to fight in the next tournament."

“What do you mean?”

“The last time I saw him getting all this confused and emotional was after he had lost against me. You know the only reason why he always shuts away his emotions so forcefully is because otherwise he can’t fight.”

“Why?” Kentaro moved closer towards Senga signalizing him that he really had to tell him even though Senga didn't seem too willing to tell him more. “Senga, at the moment I feel like I don’t even know Nikaido even though we are together for so long already! Please, if there is anything you know that could help me to understand him better, tell me!”

Senga hesitated for a moment not sure how much he should tell the boy about his friend, but in the end he sighed stroking through his hair before leaning back on the wall.

“Okay, but if possible ask him about this later yourself and don’t tell him that I told you, because he might kill me if you do and I really mean that!” Senga made clear that this conversation was definitely nothing to tell someone else and of all people not Nikaido even though he was the topic.

“I don’t know all the details myself and it might be better if you ask him directly to be honest, but for now I can tell you at least the rough version.” Kentaro listened in silence to Senga, but his eyes grew wider with every sentence. He couldn’t believe that Nikaido hadn’t told him anything about it before.

“So as a summary you are telling me that Nikaido was a member of some yakuza group at which he played bodyguard for the boss until the police got involved too much and now he tries to keep a low profile in the fight clubs to not get caught?” Kentaro summarized Senga’s explanation still not believing what he had just heard.

“Roughly said yes, but as I told you I don’t know the details myself. But there were definitely worse things going on than in the fight clubs, I don’t even want to know what kind of memory Nikaido has to deal with every day and exactly that is why he keeps his emotions shut in. After our fight he was about to rip his own club apart, it took 5 people to stop him and after he had calmed down I tried to speak to him and that was when he opened up to me a little bit for the first time. He didn’t tell me everything that day, but he said that when he would let his emotions take over his actions he would turn into an insane killing machine, because this was exactly what he had to be all the years before to survive in the underground.”

Kentaro just nodded not sure what to respond. This was for sure not what he had expected Nikaido to keep secret from him all the time. He felt so stupid for being angry at him every time he tried to act emotionless when other people wouldn’t, but now he understood why, finally!

“Give him some space for now. I bet he will come back in the morning, you can talk to him then!” Senga gave him a supporting smile before he left the room.

For a moment Kentaro sat on the bed thinking about just trying to sleep and see if he could talk to him tomorrow, but then he remembered Kitayama’s words and also the fight between Nikaido and Taiga made him feel uneasy. In the end he got dressed and sneaked out the building trying to find Nikaido on his own.

But after running through the backstreets of the area and searching in the few clubs and bars they had visited before he realized that it wouldn’t be as easy as he thought to find him. Again he realized that even though so much time had passed he didn’t know anything about him. Sure Nikaido wasn’t the type to go out alone quite often and he also told him that he didn’t like it to go to clubs and bars, but what did he like then? What did he do before the war? Kentaro had talked to him about his own past before, but there was not so much to tell anyways. So when Nikaido had asked him once, he had just retold his story about being a normal child, in a middle class family and ended up alone in Tokyo after his parents got killed. The only unusual thing about him was his dancing and that he started that had been just a coincidence.

_“So he was just standing there on the street dancing and you didn’t think of that as weird at all?” Nikaido asked chuckling playing with Kentaro’s hair while listening to his background story._

_“It wasn’t exactly a street, it was more like an unused area under a bridge next to a street and no I didn’t find it weird. His dancing had this kind of energy which dragged me towards him.”_

_Nikaido escaped a low chuckle on which Kentaro hit him against the chest looking up at him with an angry glare._

_“Don’t make fun out of it! You said yourself before that you found it interesting!” Kentaro scolded him trying to push him away, but Nikaido closed his arms around his back pulling him back against his chest. Kentaro protested, but his scolding got swallowed by his chuckles ad Nikaido kissed him on the hair and apologized._

_“Okay, okay got it! I won’t make fun out of it, so would you tell me the rest of the story?”_

_“If you let go of me at least a little bit, then yes. Because otherwise I won’t be able to breath anymore in a few minutes.”_

_“Always complaining, aren’t you?” Nikaido asked chuckling, but moved away a little bit so that Kentaro could move up on the pillow so that they were facing each other._

_“You can also tell me about your past instead, if that pleases you more?”_

_“I would say we go with yours first, I want to know more about your mysterious teacher! Don’t stop now that it gets interesting!”_

_“Ah so suddenly you are interested? Didn’t you just say he was weird?”_

_“Weird indeed, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be interesting. I found you weird as well!”_

_“What?” Kentaro got up playing scandalized as he threw a pillow at Nikaido, who caught it throwing it right back at him._

Their conversation had been stopped by their teasing battle and other activities that night and hadn’t continued since. It hadn’t been so important for Kentaro to tell him about random things like his dancing, so as Nikaido didn’t ask about it afterwards anymore he didn’t even think about warming up the topic later again. But now he realized that there was more about it then he had thought. He had asked Nikaido about his past that day and the reason why he never asked Kentaro more about his past could be that he was afraid to get ask the same question again.

“What could be so bad that you don’t even want to tell me?” Kentaro asked himself as he walked absentmindedly through the backstreets. Suddenly someone stepped in front of him making him stop and he finally spend attention to his surroundings again. A man was standing in front of him hands in his pockets looking down at him with a dangerous glare. Kentaro looked to the side realizing that there were two other men standing next to an open door which seemed like a back entrance, even though the building seemed already a little bit old to be of any use anymore.

Kentaro made a step to the side trying to just keep walking and ignoring them, because he still didn’t want to give up on finding Nikaido and the last he could use at the moment was a fight. But of course the man followed his move and blocked his way again. Kentaro rolled his eyes looking up at him with an annoyed flick of his tongue.

“What do you want? I’m not in the mood for annoying guys like you!”

“Big talk for a little boy like you!” The man in front of him said laughing stepping closer. Kentaro automatically made a step back, but as soon as he did the two other men stepped behind him.

“Oh boy, you want to leave already?”

“It’s not like I came here to play with you!”

“But we want to play with you!” The man said as he took his hands out of his pockets revealing a knife in his hand. Before Kentaro could even think about attacking him the other two men had grabbed his arms forcing them on his back, but as the man in front of him tried to attack he kicked him with so much force that he got slammed into the next trash bins.

“You little brat!” The man hissed between his teeth as he stood up again. He tried to attack him again, but this time Kentaro freed himself out of the others' grip and ducked away under his attack making him stumble through a foot sweep, so that his companions had to catch him.

“Sorry guys, but I really have better things to do! If you would excuse me?” Kentaro was about to turn around and start running for now, but then he heard the one sound which made him freeze. A sound he hadn’t heard since the war had ended and he turned back to the men with wide eyes.

One of the other two had drawn a gun pointing it directly at him. Since he had entered the northern fight club and got his private lessons from Nikaido he had learned to not give up that easily, even when he was afraid he was able to not show fear, except for a moment like this. The darkest memories he had were the soldiers killing his parents right in front of his eyes, shooting them and pointing the gun at him afterwards. One of them had decided to let him live, because he was still a child. They had left the house and a dead scared boy, starring at his dead parents, behind. Exactly those memories made him freeze to the spot as the man which attacked him first started laughing triumphing as he could read Kentaro’s fear in his eyes.

“So what was that about not wanting to play with us?”

“What do you want from me anyways? If you want money, sorry to disappoint you, but-“

The man started laughing again before Kentaro could finish his sentence. He shook his head approaching him and taking him by the collar.

“Do you know why I stopped you? The fight clubs are getting famous around the blocks recently so that many people go there to watch and bet! Bet on little bastards like you! And you know what that means for our business? If people spend their money at your club, they won’t have money left to buy our stuff. Less costumers, means also less money!”

“Oh come on, all the stuff you are doing in this area is illegal anyways, don’t blame your loss on us! Maybe the people are just tired of your stupid dealing and trouble making.” Of course Kentaro knew what kind of business he was talking about. As he had entered the underground world himself to survive after the war, he had seen many faces of it and the club dealers were one of it.

“Little arrogant smartass, aren’t you?” He shouted at him pulling him closer on his collar, but Kentaro tried to free himself out of his grip. He pushed the man away, but the moment he tried to lunge out for a punch the man with the gun shouted at him to stop and as he saw how his finger was ready to pull the trigger he let go of the other one lifting his hands.

“Oh look at that, our fighter is afraid of guns! Isn’t he cute?” The man mocked him before he punched Kentaro knowing that he wouldn’t dare to defend himself. “Then let’s play a little while or do you want to deny?” He grabbed Kentaro by the shirt and pulled him towards the door. For a moment Kentaro struggled trying to at least stop them from dragging him off the street, but the man turned around and hit him directly into the rips with so much force that Kentaro screamed out and fell to his knees. The man crouched down in front of him taking him by the hair lifting up his head.

“By the way, I’ve seen your last fight and I bet that your rips are still a mess.” He whispered into his ear before dragging him inside the building followed by the man with the gun. The third one remained at the door guarding it as the other two walked further into the big storage like room. Kentaro could see a few plants and boxes with white powder, so his guess about them being dealers was at least right. The man threw him to the ground making him gasp as he hit the floor way too hard. Without spending him any attention he moved over to a table taking an injection from it. As he approached him with it Kentaro crawled away from him until his back hit the wall.

“You don’t archive anything by doing this!” Kentaro tried to sound confident, but who was he kidding? He had brought himself into this mess, without his protector even knowing about his whereabouts. He should have just stayed in the club waiting for Nikaido to return, but how could he have known that he would run into the next mess right away?

“Yes you are right, it is not like we would get money out of doing this to you, but let’s say doing it for fun is good enough sometimes!” He crouched down in front of him, the man with the gun standing right behind him reminding Kentaro of the dangerous weapon threatening his life. “And you know what? I even do you something good with it, because this is exactly what those things are made for! They give you the feeling that everything is alright, so how about you try to enjoy it?”

He grabbed Kentaro’s arm tightly above his elbow so that his veins got visible. Kentaro looked at the injection in panic as the man moved it closer to his arm.

“Stop it!” Kentaro pulled away out of reflex trying to turn away, but again the man aimed for his rips. Kentaro bit on his lower lip as he tried to not scream on the sudden pain.

“Aren’t you a tough boy? But let me remind you of this here!” The man said pointing at the gun. “So if you pull away again I make sure that a bullet lands in your arm instead of the injection!”

He looked at Kentaro with dangerous eyes before he grabbed his arm again not losing any time to bring the injection down. Kentaro closed his eyes and clenched his fists as he tried to calm down and for a moment everything seemed fine as he let go of him afterwards and stepped back, but it didn’t take long until Kentaro started to feel weird.

“I’m sorry, but to be honest I lied to you!” The man admitted suddenly, but it was already hard for Kentaro to catch his words. His body felt kind of numb and his eyesight got blurry. “This is not one of our usual drugs. It is still in the test phase and let’s say you were just our first volunteer. So how does it feel?”

Kentaro tried to get up, but he couldn’t find his balance. He could hear the men laugh, but for now he had bigger problems than their mocking.

“Hey where do you think you are going?” The man holding the injection asked stopping Kentaro as he tried to somehow get up and walk alongside the wall towards the door. Kentaro swirled around slashing wild around him before he fell to the ground again groaning in pain.

“I would say we have to get over the ingredient list once more!” The man with the gun said laughing looking at Kentaro with an amused face. As the man in front of him tried to lift him up again he tried to lunge out for a punch, but it was no use in his current state.

“So what do we do with him now?” He asked as he had blocked Kentaro’s punch and dragged him back to the corner dropping him to the ground.

“Hm, good question. How about we try some other stuff on him?”

“The problem is that we already injected one, so the results won’t necessary be of any use.”

“Also true!”

This time the one with the gun approached him pointing the gun directly to his head. “Then how about we get rid of him? It is not like someone would miss him!”

“Do whatever you want, in this state he is not much fun anymore anyways.” The other one said bored dropping to a chair putting his legs on the table in front of him. Even the one in front of the door came over to them as he realized that he wouldn’t be needed to guard the door anymore or at least that was what Kentaro had made him believe. The moment the one with the gun had looked over to the others and had finally come into his reach he twisted the gun out of his hand and kicked him into the next table. The other one jumped up, immediately pulling out his knife, but this time Kentaro was the one with the gun, so he hesitated waiting for the reaction of the boy.

“You really think you can flee in your condition?” The man asked giggling, but Kentaro screamed at his body to move steady. He hadn’t played everything before, his condition was really more than bad, but at least he could stand and hopefully walk. He moved backwards to the door pointing the gun at the men, which luckily didn’t try to follow him. He knew that as soon as he was out the door he had to run, no matter if his body would want to or not. He opened the door with his hand behind his back stepping out still facing the men. He took a last deep breath before he slammed the door shut and turned to run. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t fire the gun if necessary, but he knew that shooting someone could have more than bad consequences especially in the underground and he didn’t want to survive now to be killed later. After he had already turned around a few corners he threw the gun into the next best trash can he could find and after a few more minutes his body finally forced him to stop. He turned into a small alley leaning against the wall breathing hard. The moment he stopped and took another breath he had to turn around holding himself up with his arms against the wall before he threw up. At least after that he felt a little bit better, but now his body felt weaker than before and he punched the wall with the side of his fist cursing.

“How much can go wrong in just a few days?” He hissed trying to calm down. He had to give his body a small rest, but he knew that he hadn’t much time. He needed to return to the club as fast as possible without getting into any other trouble. He had closed his eyes taking a few more deep breathes as he heard footsteps behind him. He had no time to think, they were already so close that he had to attack first and think later. He swirled around lunging out for a punch, but before he could even see clearly what was going on his punch was redirected and the person he attacked had moved behind him holding on to his arms so fast that he lost orientation for a moment and felt nauseous again. He tried to break free, but his body wouldn’t allow him to struggle as much as he wanted.

“Woah Kentaro calm down, it’s just us!” The other one in front of him said calm and on the sound of a familiar voice Kentaro finally relaxed a little bit and blinked a few times to make the stars in front of his eyes disappear. 

“Kochi! Juri!” Kentaro said more than relieved. He tried to smile at Kochi who stood in front of him, but his knees gave in as his body realized that the danger was over. Juri caught him from behind before he hit the ground.

“What the hell happened? You look like shit!” Kochi asked worried.

“Oh really? What a miracle that you noticed that!”

"You know how much trouble you caused?" Juri scolded him, but Kentaro looked at him questioning.

"Nikaido almost ripped the whole club to pieces as he came back and realized that you were gone."

"What, he already returned?" Now Kentaro felt totally stupid for not waiting for him to return.

“Yeah he had, but let’s bring you back for now!” Juri tried to lift him up, but Kochi stopped him as he wanted to reach out for Kentaro to help him up.

"Oh god Kentaro, your arm!" Kochi grabbed him by the elbow making him flinch and yelp on the sudden pain. He hadn't realized that his veins around the injection site had turned dark. "Kentaro what the hell happened?"

"Long story, can we please go back first!"

"Okay, Juri bring him back I will meet with the others to tell them that we found him."

"The others?" Kentaro asked him confused as Juri lifted him up putting his unhurt arm around his shoulder.

"Half of the club is out searching for you for over an hour already. We arranged a meeting point after each hour to report if someone has found you."

"Is Nikaido also searching?"

"Idiot, of course he is. He is the one who wanted to run off alone searching for you, but Ueda talked a little bit sense into him and we all decided to help and as it seems it was a good idea or Nikaido would've maybe found you dead somewhere in the morning." Juri growled at him.

Kentaro looked guilty to the ground on Juri’s scolding, but he knew that it had been a stupid idea from the beginning to run around the area all alone. He should know the best what dangerous times they were living in, especially in their district.

"Anyways, you head back!  I'll come with the others as soon as possible.” Kochi shouted towards them as he already turned to run towards the meeting point.

“Wait! Juri, you can’t let him go alone. What if the people who attacked me earlier will run into him?” Kentaro asked panicked.

“Kentaro if you wouldn’t have been hurt from the beginning don’t you think you could normally handle whatever happened to you before?”

Sure Kochi was in a good condition and a good fighter. Also the fact that he had gotten rid of the gun earlier, hoping that they didn’t had another one hidden somewhere, made him calm down a little bit as Juri started dragging him back towards the club.


	3. Chapter 3

"Nikaido calm down!"

Kentaro was sitting on the bed in the med room waiting with Juri for the others to return what they obvious just did. Nikaido almost ripped the door out of its angles followed by a really worried looking Senga who tried to calm him down. Tegoshi, Taiga, Ueda, Fuma and Kochi followed them, but no one tried to stop him. The doc had already arrived and taken a sample of Kentaro's blood examining it. Kentaro jumped up out of reflex as Nikaido dashed in even though Juri told him to sit down again.

"Nikaido, I'm -"

Sorry, was what he wanted to say, but Nikaido had stopped in front of him slapping him with so much force that he lost balance and fell sideways  on the bed. Everyone looked at them in shock and as Taiga tried to interfere Ueda took his arm shaking his head. It had been the first time that Nikaido had hit him like that, sure they had a few small fights here and there and were really serious at their training as well, but this was different and Kentaro looked more than perplex for a moment as he looked up at Nikaido.

"Are you out of your mind? If you want to get killed tell me, I can tell you the right places to go!" Nikaido shouted at him, but to everyone's surprise Kentaro got up with an angry glare pushing Nikaido backwards.

"How dare you even talk like that after running off!"

"Running off? Hey it's not like I'm not allowed to go wherever I want WHENEVER I want!"

"But you could have talked to me before."

"Why should I? It's not like I have to ask you permission."

"But you are my protector for God's sake and I would like to know when you throw me to the wolves!" Kentaro shouted the same way as Nikaido, standing right in front of him and even though everyone looked more than uncomfortable next to them, no one dared to interfere.

"Oh and then you decide to walk out there on your own to get into even more danger?"

"I went out there to search for you and not-"

At the last moment Nikaido caught him as he fainted without any kind of warning.

"How often can a person faint in just a few days?" Juri asked, not teasing, but really worried.

"What's wrong with him?" Nikaido put him carefully on the bed turning towards the doc, but Juri explained the situation instead so the doc could continue his examination.

"It seemed like he got some kind of new drug injected. His condition is getting worse and for now we can do nothing but hope that the doc finds a way to help him.”

Nikaido finally took a better look at him now realizing in what bad condition he was. He was all sweaty, his breaths short and painful and his veins on the arm turning dark. He felt completely stupid for freaking out on the boy like this without even knowing what had happened.

"For now we should let him rest and wait for the doc to find something that can help him.”

"I'm staying here." Nikaido announced as the others walked towards the door and no one would have dared to tell him to leave.

The time passed fast and his condition got worse. Nikaido held on to his hand for hours already and then finally Kentaro returned the grip.

"Kentaro?" Nikaido asked in a low voice and the boy turned his head to look at him.

"I'm sorry. I caused you so much trouble again."

"Shut up, this is not your fault!"

Kentaro had to smile on Nikaido's scolding tone even though he wanted to make it sound like an apology, but failed.

"Oh you are awake that is good. Can you sit up?" The doc approached them with an injection in his hand and Nikaido helped Kentaro sit up.

"I'm sorry, but I have to inject it into the same arm, because the effect will be stronger and faster this way."

Kentaro nodded stretching out his arm, but it was visible to all of them that he felt more than uncomfortable as he looked at the injection. Without saying anything Nikaido got up and sat down on the bed behind him taking his arm in one hand and moving the other one around his shoulders. Kentaro leant against his chest grabbing his sleeve with his free hand.

Nikaido gave the doc a nod and as he brought the injection down to Kentaro's arm the boy bit his lip trying hard not to scream out. Out of reflex he tried to pull his arm away, but Nikaido held it in place.

"Okay done." The doc looked at him kind of apologizing while Nikaido let go of him again standing up.

"And now?"

"We have to wait if it shows any effect. The drug he got injected was made out of so many substances that I'm not sure if I can make a proper antidote and the problem is that when this one doesn't work, we might not have time for another one." With that he went back to analyze the drug's ingredients once more in case he had to make another antidote, but he doubted that he would make it in time.

"You should get some sleep." Kentaro told Nikaido after he had lied down again, but the older one shook his head.

"I can sleep enough when I know that you are fine again."

Kentaro chuckled gaining a raised eyebrow from Nikaido as a response.

"Then you might never sleep again, if I continue like the last days. I have the feeling I'm using all my life's bad luck in a few days."

"At least you feel good enough again to make fun out of yourself, I would say that is a good sign." Nikaido responded with a light smile stroking a strain of hair out of the younger one's face. "Try to sleep and let's hope that you feel better when you wake up again."

Nikaido kept looking at him until he was sure that he had fallen asleep before he left the room for a while. He couldn't calm down and sleeping was out of question, but as he walked out the room finding Taiga leaning at the wall next to the door his look turned kind of apologizing.

"How is he?" Taiga asked walking up to Nikaido.

"For now he is okay, but we still don't know if the antidote shows any effect."

Taiga just nodded hugging himself. Nikaido turned around wanting some time for himself, but he forced himself to turn back once more.

"Taiga?"

The boy looked up at him with a confused look and Nikaido sighed deeply before he swallowed his pride. "I'm sorry for screaming at you like that before. You were right I should have gone to see Kentaro instead of just leaving like that." He didn't wait for an answer instead he turned away leaving for the direction of the training room knowing that Taiga would watch out for Kentaro for now.

***

It was early morning already as Nikaido finally stepped away from the punching bag. He didn't want to disturb Kentaro's sleep, not wanting to check up on him every few minutes, but he was still too restless to sleep. So for the last few hours he had stayed in the training room trying to let out his frustration about everything that happened in just a few days.

"What is the ruckus about?"

Nikaido turned towards the door, but his eyes turned dark as he saw how Kitayama walked in.

"No need for you to know."

Kitayama walked up to him, but Nikaido grabbed his stuff wanting to leave the room.

"Did something happen?"

Nikaido stopped next to him grabbing him by his shirt without being able to stop himself.

"As I said no need for you to know, because it has nothing to do with you."

Kitayama lifted an eyebrow at him, but Nikaido tried hard to calm down. He wanted to let go again, but Kitayama grabbed his wrist holding him in place.

"What?" Nikaido growled dangerously, but Kitayama just replied with a light smile.

"The underground is your family and you have to take care of it."

Nikaido's eyes went wide on his statement. It could have been a coincidence that he had used the same words, but Nikaido ripped his arm out of his grip stepping back.

"How did you-"

The door opened with a loud impact as Senga rushed inside. He froze for a moment as he didn't expect to find Kitayama in the training room as well.

"What is it?" Nikaido asked alarmed by Senga's expression.

"It's Kentaro, he's-"

Nikaido didn't let him finish his sentence. He rushed passed Kitayama and Senga running towards the med room. As he entered, Taiga looked up at him in panic.

"NIKAIDO!" Taiga screamed out for him the moment he had seen him. Kentaro was digging his nails into Taiga's arms who tried desperately to hold him down. The boy was screaming in pain and for a moment Nikaido didn't know what to do.

"Hold him down for now, make sure that he doesn't hurt himself!" The doc shouted at them and finally Nikaido moved, jumping on the bed making Taiga step back as he sat on top of Kentaro pinning his wrists to the bed.

"Kentaro, calm down. It will be alright!" Nikaido looked at the boy's arm and in shock he realized that the veins had turned even darker and that it spread over his body.

"Doc, can't you give him something?"

"Unfortunately not. I had no time to prepare another antidote and like this he will die in at least an hour."

Everyone fell silent on his words and Nikaido felt more than nauseous by now. "Are you saying we have to stay here and watch him die?" Taiga asked almost whispering.

"We have one more chance, but it is risky and I need at least two persons with the same blood type as his."

"What is his blood type then? We have no time!" Nikaido shouted as Kentaro's screaming got louder again.

"Type A. So I need someone with A or 0!"

Nikaido cursed knowing that he himself couldn't help him. He looked at Taiga and Senga, but they both shook their head.

"Okay wake the others and ask them!" Nikaido shouted knowing that they were running out of time.

"Maybe I can help!"

Everyone turned towards the door looking at Kitayama. "I'm type A."

"If you're okay with it, then yes please." Taiga said right away, but Nikaido shook his head.

"No not him! Get someone from the others, there is definitely someone."

"Nikaido cut the crap. The doc said at least two and he is here already, let him help or do you want to lose Kentaro, just because you two don't get along?" Senga yelled at him and finally Nikaido gave his okay, but he still wouldn't trust him just because he offered his help.

"Okay, try to find at least one more person, because I will need a lot of blood."

"What are you going to do?" Taiga asked almost panicked as the doc prepared a small bucket and different types of hoses and injections.

"We are going to exchange his blood."

Everyone looked at him with the same questioning look, but they had no time for long explanations. Taiga and Senga started to search for another fitting person while the doc prepared a bed right next to Kentaro telling Kitayama to lie down. First he prepared something to drag the blood out of Kitayama's arm, but the man looked a little bit uncomfortable seeing how his blood was flowing into the bucket. Then he did the same with Kentaro's arm, but the boy struggled a lot as he tried to put another injection in his hurt arm.

" It will be over soon!" Nikaido whispered as he lowered his head touching his forehead with his own to calm him down.

"Please make it stop!" The boy's weak voice made a cold shiver run down his back, but he concentrated on holding him down even as the boy screamed out as the doc finally injected the needle connected to the hose, which dragged out his blood.

"So now the infected blood gets drained and I will inject Kitayama's blood from his other arm after a while."

"Wait, can't you inject it right away? He will die if he loses too much blood in his condition."

"I know, but I have to be sure that most of the infected blood is already out or it won't be an exchange, but just mixing up the blood and that won't help him."

"So for how long do we have to wait?"

"Until the bucket is full!"

Nikaido looked at the bucket on the ground and seeing that there was still almost nothing in it while Kentaro already turned weaker with every passing minute made him feel completely helpless.

"You are not allowed to die on me, do you hear me?" Nikaido yelled at the boy, which had turned silent after a while not having any strength left to struggle.

"Kitayama are you okay?" The doc asked as Kitayama's bucket was almost full.

"Yes don't worry. Take as much blood as you need. I'll be fine."

"Thank you, but one bucket is the limit."

Nikaido tried to ignore Kitayama even as he realized how bad he looked after the doc had finally stopped the draining. He filled the bucket into a bag connected to a hose and hung it next to Kentaro's bed.

"Isn't it enough already? He's about to lose conscious!" Nikaido asked worried as he didn't even have to hold the boy down anymore, because he was too weak to struggle.

"Just a little bit more and I will insert Kitayama's blood.”

"Hey, we brought Fuma and Kochi. They have- what the hell?" Taiga turned completely pale as his look fell on Kentaro and the bucket filled with blood.

"Woah Taiga!" Fuma grabbed his shoulders as it seemed like he would faint. "Are you kidding me, don't tell me you can't see blood? You see a lot of your own all the time."

"This is different." Taiga sat down on a bed near the door while the doc told Fuma and Kochi to lie down as well.

"I will connect Kentaro to the first dose now, but it could be that we have to repeat it later, so I will drain as much as possible from both of you as well."

None of them complained and they waited patiently until the doc finished everything.

"I want all three of you to rest a little bit more before getting up. And for Kentaro we have to wait a little while to see if it worked or not, but for now his life shouldn't be in danger anymore."

Nikaido sat down next to his bed holding his hand, but Kentaro didn't react anymore. He had his eyes closed, but this time his breathing was calm and he seemed to have fallen asleep.

***

"You seem restless." Ueda said worried as he sat down next to Taiga who he had brought to his room after he didn't seem capable of staying on his own after what had happened to Kentaro.

"As long as we don't know if Kentaro will be okay I won't be able to calm down."

"He will be alright, he is a tough guy." Ueda chuckled on his own words making Taiga look at him questioning. "I mean he was such a weird character when I brought him here, wasn't he? He wasn't really strong, but he was brave."

"And got easily pissed."

"He still gets, that didn't change."

Both chuckled a little bit remembering the chaotic times.

"But Nikaido made a really tough boy out of him. I wonder why Nikaido himself gets so weak at the moment." Ueda said wondering.

"Weak? What do you mean, his fighting is still awesome. The fight against Kitayama was different, because Kentaro fainted."

"No that is not what I mean. He gets really emotional those days and it seems like even though he would never leave Kentaro's side just like that he forces himself to stay away from him."

"But why should he?"

"I'm not sure. To be honest no one in the club really knows much about Nikaido. The only ones which know a little bit more are Senga and Nakai. I have the feeling that Kitayama is one reason, but I don't get why he gets so weird towards Kentaro just because he has a problem with Kitayama."

"Are you serious?" Taiga sat up a little bit, leaning on the wall, facing Ueda with a judging look.

"Did I say something wrong?"

On that he got a hit on his shoulder from Taiga.

"Hey, what the hell did I do?"

"Oh not sure, maybe you just pretended to not understand something you did yourself before."

"What are you even talking about?"

"You remember the time when I entered this club and you were still fighting? I can't even count the times when you screamed at me, because someone new entered the club or when we were at another club. Especially when we were in Ryo's club you would totally freak."

"I wasn't that bad."

"You hit me once, because I went to the toilet without telling you as we were at the east club."

"That was… sorry." Ueda stopped himself as he realized that his explanation was exactly what Taiga tried to tell him the whole time. He had been worried, because there were so many dangerous persons around that he got overprotective over Taiga and the same seemed to happen to Nikaido and Kentaro.

"I should speak to him."

"But be prepared that he starts yelling at you."

"As long as he doesn't try to punch me."

"Why? Are you afraid of him? Maybe you are getting out of shape, old man."

"What did you just say?" Ueda tackled Taiga from the side so that he tried to hide under the blanket, chuckling. "I'll show you how good I'm in shape!" Ueda sat on top of Taiga trying to turn him on his back tickling him. The boy begged him to stop between his chuckles, but Ueda grasped his waist as he tried to flee from the bed.

"That's unfair."

"Hey, you were the one who challenged me, now deal with the consequences." Ueda replied chuckling as he threw both of them back on the bed pressing Taiga's back against his chest.

"Okay, okay. I give up!"

Taiga wanted to turn around, but Ueda pulled him closer closing his arms around his upper body putting his chin on the boy's shoulder.

"Ueda?" Taiga asked a little bit worried as the older one didn't say anything and just remained like this.

"So much time has passed and everything is going so well in the club. Okay Kentaro made things a little bit chaotic again, but he always does."

"What's your point?" Taiga asked confused. But suddenly Ueda let go of him so that he could turn around to face him. Ueda looked at him with a light smile shaking his head.

"To be honest I'm not sure. I think I'm just happy that everything is alright at the moment."

"Let's hope that it stays like this!" Taiga replied smiling before he closed his eyes trying to finally get some sleep after this long and chaotic night. Ueda looked at him for a moment before reaching out for his face, but just before his fingertips touched his cheek he pulled back with a kind of guilty expression. He knew that he had to draw the line here, even though it was hard.

"Good night." He said instead and Taiga pulled him closer mumbling the same against the latter's chest.

***

"Nikaido?" Kentaro carefully shook Nikaido on the shoulder. The older one had fallen asleep on the chair next to his bed resting with his upper body on the bed.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Nikaido rose from the bed way too fast, but tried to calm down as he realized that Kentaro seemed fine or more like at least not in pain anymore.

"I feel dizzy and a little bit nauseous to be honest."

"How about the pain?"

"My arm still hurts a little bit, but it's way less pain than before." Kentaro tried to sit up and Nikaido automatically jumped up to help him. His arm looked way better than before as the dark parts were almost gone.

"I can't really remember what happened. As the pain got too much I just remember how Taiga tried to help me and then you came. But what did you do? I don't think I just healed on my own right?"

"We drained your blood and exchanged it with new one."

"You what? Is that even possible?"

"Yes it is, I saw it with my own eyes." Nikaido explained after smiling a little bit on Kentaro's stunned face.

"But wait, who's blood did I receive?"

Kochi's and Fuma's, because they had the fitting blood type. The doc had to repeat the procedure, because one time wasn’t enough to get all the substances out of your blood. "

"Are they okay?" Kentaro wanted to get up, but Nikaido pushed him back on the bed.

"Calm down, they are fine. They are resting after they had been able to leave the med room a few hours earlier already, so don't worry."

"I'm sorry, I caused so much trouble just because I couldn't wait for you to return."

"No it was my fault to just leave like this without telling you. I'm your protector and I just failed all along the line.”

Kentaro started laughing, but tried hard to stop as Nikaido glared at him.

"Sorry, it's just that we tried to rip each other apart a few hours ago about this topic and now we are both trying to convince each other that we are at fault."

"Stop laughing or it will start to hurt again." Nikaido said slapping him lightly on the shoulder pointing at his rips. "Sleep a little bit more, okay. I will take a look at Fuma and Kochi for you."

"Thank you."

Nikaido stood up and leant down to him stroking the hair away from his forehead to kiss it. Kentaro chuckled, but before Nikaido could back off he hold him down and pulled him down to give him a kiss on the lips in response. Nikaido moved his hands to the younger one's hair automatically deepening the kiss, closing his eyes. But after another moment Kentaro let out a displeased moan as Nikaido backed off way too fast.

"You should rest some more."

Kentaro nodded looking after Nikaido with a weird feeling about what he had just told him about his treatement.

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

“A trip?” Taiga asked blinking at Ueda confused.

“Don’t look at me like this. It was Nakai’s idea. He said that the upcoming tournament will be stressful enough for all of us, because it will be more than annoying to have the other club around, especially because two No.1 clubs at the same place are always dangerous.”

“And then he wants us to take a trip, because…?”

“As I told you, I don’t have a clue. Maybe he thinks it will be good for us to have a break.”

Taiga still stared at Ueda as if he would have just told him the most ridiculous fairytale of all time. They have never taken something like vacation in the club or went on a trip, except for tournaments at other clubs.

“Not that I wouldn’t be happy about it, but it sounds too good to be true.”

“What sounds good?” Fuma asked curious as he walked inside the training room followed by Juri and Kochi.

“Didn’t I tell you to not come to the training today?” Ueda scolded them, but he knew that he couldn’t really stop the stubbornness of the boys.

“We are fine, don’t worry.” Kochi said with a light smile. “So what were you talking about?”

Ueda explained everything about the trip again and the boys’ eyes went brighter with every sentence.

“How cool is that, please? Where do we go? Can we please go to the beach?” Fuma asked jumping up and down totally hyperactive.

“Let’s discuss that with everyone later, for now it’s training time! Fuma you go and warm up with Kento!” Ueda said pointing at the back of the room were a few fighters were already gathered. Kento lifted his head on the sound of his name, but as he met Fuma’s annoyed stare he looked to the ground right away.

“You really know how to destroy my mood in just a few seconds, you know that?” Fuma growled at Ueda, but did as he said and walked over to the boy. Kento was up on his feet right away, but still didn’t dare to look at him. Fuma took him by the arm and dragged him over to the ring, stopping next to it and helping Kento to put his gloves on.

“Please tell me that they are not going to be as annoying as Nikaido and Kentaro in the beginning!” Juri said with a sigh.

“You think we were annoying?”

Juri squealed as Nikaido put his arm around the boy’s throat as he had approached him unnoticed from behind so that he couldn’t run away.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Kochi, help!” Juri tried to free himself, but Nikaido held on to him and instead of helping him, Kochi shook his head walking away.

“You brought that on yourself, now help yourself.” He added laughing.

“What an awesome friend you are. Then Taiga!” He turned towards the boy, but he had the same mischievous smile on his lips as Kochi. “You are all traitors, you know that!?” He growled, but the next moment Nikaido let go of him pushing him towards Taiga.

“How about you all go and train your muscles a little bit instead of your mouths!” Nikaido said neutral looking from them to Ueda and luckily Taiga got the message and pushed Juri towards Kochi leaving them alone.

“Kochi and Fuma seem fine. At least two less to worry about.” Nikaido said as he and Ueda moved to a corner of the room so they could talk in private.

“Yeah, I told them to rest for today, but you know them, they don’t really listen to what I’m saying anymore.”

“You should do something about that you know? It won’t take long until they are not taking you serious at all anymore, if you get too soft.”

“Says the one who gets hyperemotional over the boy he protects.”

“Right back at you!”

They both chuckled knowing that they both had changed a lot through Taiga and Kentaro.

“Is he awake already?”

“Yes he just woke up, but I told him to rest a little bit longer.”

“Does he know about his treatment?”

Nikaido stayed silent for a moment looking to the ground.

“Let me guess you left out the part with Kitayama?” Ueda asked seeing on Nikaido’s face right away that he was right. “I won’t ask you about it, but whatever is going on between you two don’t you think that he deserves at least a little bit gratitude? He saved Kentaro’s life after all!”

Nikaido growled annoyed, but he knew that he was right.

***

"I can't believe that we honestly drove to the beach." Fuma said kind of stunned as he stood right in front of the ocean with sparkling eyes.

"Me neither, it's my first time to see the ocean to be honest." Juri explained stepping next to him together with Kochi.

"Then it's time that you don't just see it." Fuma said with a smile before they all ran towards the water trying to strip out their clothes without slowing down, ending with Kochi landing in the sand in full length and the other two laughing at him before helping him up and jumping into the water.

Taiga stopped next to the bus, with which they normally drove to tournaments, and looked after the others with a smile as Ueda stepped next to him.

"Your first time here as well?" The older one asked putting his hand on the boy's shoulder gaining a kind of bitter chuckle.

"Unbelievable, but yes. My parents went with me on so many business trips, but for something like a nice family vacation at the beach we never had time."

"Tegoshi, the beach is in the other direction!" Kento shouted after him as he jumped out the bus running behind it, but the sound that followed explained his choice of direction and Kento turned away again with an understanding face.

"I guess the traveling with the bus is not made for everyone."

"Especially not with Ueda's driving skills." Nikaido added as he stepped out the bus as well.

"Hey I'm not that bad and with this old bus it’s a miracle that we even came until here." Ueda tried to defend himself, but most of their looks doubted him and as Tegoshi came back stepping next to them with a pale face, Ueda sighed.

"You can run back, if you prefer that!"

"I hope I am allowed to board your bus again though." Kentaro asked as he finally appeared in the door taking the steps down.

"You have a green card for today."

Kentaro smiled at him about to answer something as he slipped on one of the steps. Nikaido jumped forward, but the boy's fall was stopped before he could even reach him. Kentaro gasped as arms wrapped around his body stopping his fall, but hurt his rips again. But as soon as he found his balance again the arms were gone.

"Sorry, I didn't want to hurt you, but I thought better your rips than that you get a broken leg or something else as well."

Kentaro turned around looking at an apologizing smiling Kitayama.

"Thank you." Kentaro mumbled, but was dragged away from him by Nikaido before he could say anything else.

"I told you, that you shouldn't have come." He scolded him looking up at Kitayama for a moment before dragging Kentaro with him towards the beach.

"Did I do something to him?" Kitayama asked kind of hurt, but the others just shrug their shoulders.

"Give him some time. It's not so often that anther class 5 fighter enters the club." Ueda explained even though he kind of understood his worries, not that he would be allowed to doubt his own fighters as the trainer, at least not until they would give him a good reason. Kitayama nodded with a small smile before he also walked towards the water.

"Is he just pretending that he doesn't realize that he is pissing Nikaido off all the time or is he really not realizing it?" Kento asked worried.

"Let that be their problem, they will have to find a way to deal with each other. And you two shouldn't be standing here worrying about that anyways." Ueda scolded Kento and Taiga pushing them towards the beach. "I would say you fit way better to Fuma's chaos troop."

Kento looked kind of unsure what to do as he looked over to the other boys, which were throwing each other into the water, jumping and shouting. He clenched his fists into his shirt not daring to make a step forward.

"Okay, okay. Then we leave the old ones here to play mama and watch over us." Taiga replied with a lopsided smile as he took Kento by the wrist dragging him with him.

"You little brat!" Ueda shouted after him, but all he gained was an outstretched tongue and a teasing laughter.

"It really was a good idea from Nakai to give everyone some time off." Tegoshi admitted and Ueda nodded with a smile looking at everyone as they seemed to enjoy their trip more than he had expected.

***

“Are you sure that you shouldn’t sit down?” Nikaido asked for the second time already and finally Kentaro stopped walking along the beach turning around to him.

“Since when have you become so overprotective?”

“Oh I don’t know, maybe after I have almost lost you just a few days ago?”

Kentaro chuckled bitterly before finally dropping carefully on the sand followed by Nikaido who sat down next to him. For a moment they remained silent watching the others which were a few dozen meters away from them. Taiga had finally succeeded in making Ueda get into the water as well, while Juri and Kochi were swimming out to a buoy and back, racing against each other. Kentaro’s eyes fell on Fuma who had just helped Kento back to the surface after a wave had hit him by surprise and swallowed him for a moment. Fuma hit him on the back of his head and he knew that he was scolding the boy again. Kento bowed with an embarrassed smile, clenching his fists in his shirt again which he had left on saying that he would get a sunburn otherwise.

 “Maybe I should give Fuma a broad hint sometime or he will never get what is going on!” Nikaido said with a light smile before he lay down completely, stretching out his arms and closing his eyes.

“Says the one who needed to get into a fight with his best friend to accept his own feelings!” Kentaro replied, hitting him lightly on the stomach as he lay down next to him.

“Wait, when did he tell you about that conversation?”

“A long time ago!” The boy said with a lopsided smile as he turned his head to look at Nikaido who had turned to look at him as well.

“I should have a talk with Senga about keeping his mouth shut!”

“Oh come on it’s not as if he told me any dark secret of you. But I doubt that you would have kept anything important secret from me until now!” Kentaro tried to make his smile look as innocent as possible, but he hadn’t changed to this topic accidently. After Senga had told him about Nikaido’s past he had to at least try to make Nikaido spill out more about it.

“Nothing important, indeed.” He replied with a brief smile as he stroke a strain of hair out of the boy’s face. A wave of anger rose inside of Kentaro, but he wasn’t willing to let him hide his past this easily. For today he would let it pass, he didn’t want to ruin the mood, but he would confront him again sooner or later.

Nikaido turned completely on his side so that Kentaro couldn’t see the others anymore and as a side effect they couldn’t see what they were doing either. He leant closer putting one hand on Kentaro’s cheek and the boy was about to close the distance between them when both of them flinched as a strong wave reached their legs and the cold water made them almost jump up.

Kentaro started laughing immediately as he saw Nikaido’s angry face, as if he would want to punch the water for ruin their moment. But after a moment he groaned and moved a hand to his rips.

“Does it still hurt?” Nikaido asked worried.

“Unfortunately yes. Fukka must have hit really unlucky, okay lucky for him, but not for me.”

Kentaro wanted to stand up, but Nikaido put his hand on his shoulder to make him remain in a sitting position.

“We are here to relax, so you are not moving!”

“Then we have a small problem.” Kentaro let out together with a small chuckle.

“Whatever it is I can get it for you.”

“Then how about you get me a toilet?”

Nikaido blinked at him confused for a moment before he also started chuckling helping the boy up.

“Okay, fine. For that you have my permission to get up. But I guess with a toilet I can’t really help you out.”

“We have enough dunes around here, that shouldn’t be the problem or I just go into the water, but now that you know what I would do there it feels too awkward.”

Nikaido shook his head on the teasing smile of the boy and pushed him lightly towards the dunes.

“Can we talk about something else when you come back, please?” Nikaido asked sighing obviously not happy about the change of topic when they should be relaxing at the beach.

Kentaro gave him a teasing smile before he hurried over to the dunes, vanishing behind the closest one.

He had walked a little bit further into the dunes and as he was about to go back to the beach he moved slower than necessary, but he was still a little bit angry at Nikaido for hiding his past, even though he asked him that obviously about it. Lost in his thoughts he didn’t realize that the dune in front of him was ending sooner as he had expected and through the steep descent in front of him he stepped into nothing. He let out a small scream as he realized that he would fall the whole descent down, not able to get back into balance. But the moment he fell forward arms wrapped around him. Unfortunately it was already too late to stop his fall, but with the other person protecting his body the fall wasn’t as bad as he had expected. It was just sand so normally he wouldn’t hurt himself that badly anyways, but the fact that his rips were still hurt and he was still not feeling that good after the blood transfer, would have made it hard for him to stop the fall as good as the other one just did.

“Are you alright?” The other one asked and Kentaro looked up at him forming a smile as he realized who it was.

“Yes, thank you. That makes the second time you helped me today.” Kentaro replied at Kitayama who got up first to help him up as well.

“And the third in general, the list of favors you own me gets longer.” Kitayama said in an amused voice, but Kentaro’s confused face made his smile vanish. “Didn’t they tell you about the blood transfer.”

“Nikaido told me that I received blood from Fuma and Kochi.”

“Okay…” Kitayama seemed a little bit hurt by his statement and Kentaro’s anger at Nikaido grew even bigger as he realized that he had lied to him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know I received blood from you as well.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was just a coincidence that I was the first one in the room with your blood type.”

Now Kentaro felt even worse after hearing that it had been Kitayama in the first place who saved his life. He clenched his fists, suppressing the wish to run over to Nikaido and punch him, but then his look fell on Kitayama’s arm.

“You are bleeding!” He realized and grabbed his arm carefully.

“No big deal, I guess I just scratched it somewhere as we fell.” Kitayama played it down, but the wound seemed quite deep and Kentaro didn’t lose time as he tear off a part of his shirt to bandage his wound with it.

“It’s not much, but like this it won’t get infected until we are back at the club and the doc can take a look at it.”

“Thank you.” Kitayama replied smiling, ruffling through the boy’s hair before walking off to the opposite direction. “You should hurry back or you boyfriend will freak out while searching for you.”

Kentaro looked after him with a lowered jaw, but sure Kitayama had already implied before that he knew what was going on between them and who wouldn’t with the way they were behaving at the moment.

Kentaro hurried back to the beach where Nikaido was already walking up and down looking to the dunes until Kentaro came into his sight.

“What took you so long? You are totally covered in sand! And what the hell happened to your shirt?” Nikaido scanned him from head to toe now looking at the boy sceptic, but Kentaro just shook his head.

“Don’t worry, I was just a little bit clumsy and stumbled. I ripped my shirt on a small tree, nothing to worry about.” He could see that the older one didn’t really believed him, but he just passed him smiling waving at him to follow him towards the others. He wanted to at least try to enjoy the rest of the day, even though his anger had been replaced by guilt. The guilt of lying to Nikaido even though he was angry at him out of exactly the same reason. But something made it hard to tell him anything related to Kitayama.

***

“Enough!” Ueda said in a calm voice, but Juri didn’t stop his attack even though it was obvious that he had heard him and could have stopped in time. His kick landed perfectly on Kento’s stomach, who had immediately moved out his defense stand at Ueda’s words regretting it right away as Juri’s kick took him off his feet with so much force that he slammed against the ropes sliding to the ground with a painful gasp.

“Juri, I told you to stop. Why-“

“JURI, ARE YOU NUTS?” Fuma jumped into the ring almost running into Ueda who stepped out of his way with a kind of amused expression.

“What? We can’t go easy on him all the time. Like this he will never be able to get through his first tournament!” Juri said angrier than he would normally act towards Fuma. That was also why Fuma approached him with threatening steps, but as Ueda hawked warning next to them he flicked his tongue turning towards Kento. As he stretched his hand out towards the boy he looked up at him confused.

“What? Don’t tell me this one kick made you unable to stand up? Sorry, but if that’s the case we have a problem, because I won’t carry you.”

Kento just nodded taking the latter’s hand to let himself get dragged back on his feet. Fuma gave Juri another threatening look before he left the ring with Kento asking him if he was okay and if he could continue his training.

“What was that?” Ueda ask Juri who tried hard to hide his smile, but failed as his look fell on Kochi who gave him a knowing look and a bright smile. Ueda had noticed of course, but he just shook his head.

“That was Fuma getting angry as usual.” Juri answered innocently as he moved out the ring together with Ueda.

“Yeah right, I wonder if it had something to do with you hurting his person of interest even though I told you not to!” Ueda’s words weren’t judging and Juri could see the light amusement on his face as he turned towards Fuma who taught Kento a new technique at the punching bags while glaring at Juri from time to time.

“Sorry I just had too much energy to stop my kick in time.”

“Yeah right, because you didn’t spend all that energy yesterday at the beach already.”

“What can I say, I’m really energetic!”

“More like hyperactive!”

Juri just gave him a bright smile before excusing himself and walking over to Kochi giving him a high five.

"Unbelievable."

"Don't be too angry at him, he just tries to help them." Taiga stepped next to him after watching the scene in silence until now.

"Couldn't he have used a more common way for that, like talking?"

"If I heard right Senga had to hit Nikaido first before he would even spill out his feelings for Kentaro."

"But that's different, it's Nikaido. You have to force him to feel something or he will just lock himself away."

"Right, reminds me of you." Taiga's sudden dark and hurt voice made Ueda look at him in confusion. But as fast as his look had darkened it brightened up again. "Unfortunately I'm not the type to yell at people so maybe that is the problem."

Before Ueda could even try to make sense out of what he had just said Taiga excused himself leaving the training room.

As soon as he closed the door behind him Taiga let out a long sigh. For a moment he didn't move, but what did he expect? He was the one who made it difficult as well, wasn't he? If he wouldn't make the first step Ueda would never approach him at all. The problem was that if he would dare to make that step, everything he had built up until now could crumble. His safety, his trust and all those precious memories which protected him from falling into a deep hole wouldn't help him anymore if exactly this one person who gave all this to him wouldn't be there anymore.

"Everything alright?" Kitayama's voice ripped Taiga out of his daydreams and he looked up at him trying to form a convincing smile as he nodded.

"Yes, everything is fine."

"Mhhh, okay if you say so. But if something's troubling you just tell me, I will listen."

Taiga blinked confused at the his words, but Kitayama just let out a kind of embarrassed chuckle. "Sorry I know there are a lot of other people here you trust more than me, I'm still a stranger to all of you."

"No that's not it, thanks.”

"It's so nice to see that not everyone mistrusts me the same way as Nikaido."

"He is just careful."

"I know, don't worry I don't blame him. I'm just happy that Kentaro is okay again."

"Right, he caused a lot of trouble with his stubborn behavior." Taiga said with a small chuckle knowing that those two were always causing trouble anyways.

"So you and Kentaro are something like best friends?" Kitayama asked with a light smile.

"Kind of. I took care of him from the first day he came into the club." And he took care of Taiga as well a lot, but Taiga didn't want to go into long detailed stories and he definitely didn't want his conversation to go more toward himself so for now he stepped away from the door making a few steps into the corridor.

"I guess you wanted to go for the training, sorry for blocking your way."

"Not at all, it was nice having a normal chat from time to time."

"Same! See you around." Taiga waved at him before walking down the corridor and disappearing behind the next corner. Kitayama remained alone lifting one corner of his mouth staring after the boy.

"Oh yes we will see each other around, for sure!"


	5. Chapter 5

 

"Then let's start. The next tournament is coming closer and I doubt that you will stand a chance at all at the moment." Nikaido said serious as he grabbed his gloves.

"Oh you are so encouraging, you know that?" Kentaro replied as he grabbed his gloves as well, but threw one of them at Nikaido instead of putting them on. He wanted to hit his back, but he aimed wrong and the glove hit on the back of his head. Nikaido turned around towards him with an angry glare, but Kentaro couldn't hide his smile.

"You little brat. Just because you had some time off this week so your stupid ribs could finally heal doesn't mean that you can get cocky now." Nikaido approached him with slow steps and Kentaro bit his lip as he stopped right in front of him. "You really think I will go easy on you today? Your period of grace is over." His dark voice and intense stare would have scared him just a few months ago, but he could read his expression perfectly by now and even as he pushed him against the wall quite rough the only reaction the boy showed was a slightly guilty look. "I'm so sorry, sensei. You might have to punish me for my bad behavior." Kentaro said apologizing, trying hard to keep the act up and he saw how the corner of Nikaido's mouth twitched on his words, but his face remained serious.

"How about I make you pay for it?" He asked in his typical husky voice when he got excited and he put one elbow next to the boy’s head leaning closer.

"What payment would that be?" Kentaro found himself trapped in the same position as a few months ago and he licked over his lips in excitement moving his hands towards the other’s neck. The older one’s eyes were glued to his lips and he leant closer with each passing second, but just before their lips touched he stopped.

"I will tell you after the training."

Kentaro was left staring after a satisfied grinning Nikaido as he stepped back the moment Kentaro wanted to lean forward.

"You are kidding me, right?" He asked totally perplex, but Nikaido just chuckled walking over to the ring giving him a teasing look.

"Who is the brat now?" Kentaro asked disbelieving as he dashed forward jumping on Nikaido's back who had turned away from him. Nikaido didn't even try to get him down again instead he burst out laughing grabbing his legs so he couldn't jump off again.

"First the work then the payment."

"That sounds pretty weird, you know that?"

"Why? This is how it works everywhere."

"With the difference that you already did your job and your payment is kind of impatient.”

"Oh now I feel so sorry." Nikaido replied as he moved over to the warming up area and tried to drop the boy off, but he held on to him tightly not willing to let go that easily.

"You want it the hard way, I see." Nikaido moved his hands to his back until he reached the boy's upper body. He started tickling him and it didn't take long for Kentaro to scold him trying to suppress his chuckles, but he still tried to somehow hold on until they fell over through their struggling and somehow Kentaro managed to turn them around so that he was sitting on top of Nikaido the moment they hit the mat.

"So how come we ended up this way around?" Nikaido asked curious, but the boy didn't give him an answer. He reached out for the other one, finally closing the distance between them. They hadn't have time at all to meet up since they had been out at the beach and because of his injury Nikaido had scolded him every time he had tried to approach him. But now that he was almost healed completely again he wouldn't hold back even though he knew that Nikaido might scold him later again for turning their training upside down. But for now he responded as longing as the boy, finally turning them around and moving his tongue over his lips impatiently until he was allowed entrance. Kentaro moved his hands under Nikaido's shirt excited about finally being able to touch him again. As the older one moved his leg between his in response he couldn't suppress a moan on which he got a light chuckle against his lips before Nikaido backed off just enough so that they could look at each other.

"I might consider to cancel the training."

"Even if you wouldn't, I wouldn't learn anything today."

"You know I can be really convincing."

"And I can get undressed on this mat faster than you can get your gloves on." Kentaro replied challenging.

"So no training it is!" He responded immediately, lifting himself off the boy. "But we should change locations. Knowing about us and actually seeing us is a huge difference."

"Right, I don't really want to add 'being found in the training room while doing it' to my list of things which brought me into trouble."

"Yes this list is already way too long."

"Says the right one."

Nikaido shook his head, but held his hand out to him instead of teasing him back and as he took it their teasing battle was over for the day. For now they had found back together, able to forget about the bad happenings of the last weeks. But forgetting about them wouldn't make them disappear and through their carelessness they hadn’t even realized the half opened door which had just been closed again.

***

“What do you mean with I’m not participating?” Senga asked more than stunned after Ueda and Nakai had gathered everyone two weeks before the tournament to announce who is fighting and who would be their opponent.

“As I said there are just two class 5 fighters at the Osaka club at the moment and Nikaido will fight their number one Kato and Kitayama will have his debut match against Koyama.” Ueda explained in a calm voice while Nakai looked around with a light smile on his face.

“Then take Kitayama out and put me in! This match is the most important one of this year. You know how much money I could make with it if I win?” Senga flicked his tongue as Ueda rolled his eyes at him.

“Senga?” Nakai asked suddenly, taking a few steps towards him and stopping right in front of him still wearing his light smile. But Senga couldn’t face him. He looked to the ground knowing that he would get scolded. “I’m sorry for not giving you the opportunity to participate, but you know what?”

He paused and Senga looked up at him carefully his smile getting even brighter before he continued. “Just imagine what would happen if you would disgrace our club in such a match!? Better I cut his head off than yours, right?”

Kitayama didn’t even flinch as Nakai pointed at him and all eyes suddenly rested on him. Even Nikaido had looked kind of taken aback by Nakai’s words. Nakai just grinned at Senga again before returning to Ueda’s side. A weird silence followed and Kentaro wasn’t even sure anymore if he was ready for this tournament. Nakai had told him that they would decide in this match if he would change to the 3rd class and Juri to the 4th, but at the moment he would have liked to switch places with Senga or Kochi which weren't fighting.

“Okay so then let’s continue.” Ueda finally said breaking the heavy silence. “Tegoshi is fighting in the 3rd class against Hamada.”

“Great, then I will lose through exhaustion after running after him for half an hour!” Taiga cracked a smile on that, obviously knowing who he was talking about. Everyone who entered with or after Kentaro and Fuma didn’t met the fighters of the Osaka club yet, but there were rumors that they were quite weird, but they were indeed strong.

“As I said before Nikaido will fight against Kato, he is new but has already gained the title of the strongest fighter in the Kansai region.”

Kentaro looked up at Nikaido kind of worried, but all he could see was excitement and it made him kind of happy, because for the last months he was more or less pissed at Kitayama all the time for interfering wherever he could. It got on Kentaro’s nerves so much that he even took Kitayama’s side from time to time and he wasn’t alone. Ueda who was as well sometimes annoyed by the new one got into a fight with Taiga before, because the younger one had taken Kitayama’s side. It wasn’t like he did anything bad, but he knew how to piss people off that was for sure. Kentaro still wondered how he managed to not get targeted by someone. Especially Senga and Fuma would normally not hesitate to attack him if he would get on their nerves, but Kentaro had realized that it was mostly Ueda and Nikaido who got annoyed by him.

“Koyama is fighting against Kitayama. We also don’t have so much information about him, but neither do they about Kitayama, so it’s just fair.” Ueda paused before looking up at Kentaro and Juri with a kind of weird expression. His look fell on Nakai then, but the boss just smiled at him signalizing him to continue. “Kentaro will fight against Yuma in class 2 and Juri against Fuji in class 3!” Again he paused and Kentaro could feel that something was definitely off, but as he asked Taiga about it he said that even though he knew them they hadn’t fought in the tournament which he had attended before so he also had no information about them.

“Okay so then we have Fuma against Kamiyama.” Without being able to hold back Taiga escaped a loud laughter and even Senga looked at Fuma with a kind of teasing expression. “And Kento against Hirano, a newbie as well.”

“Let me guess Fuma will freak out at his fight?” Kentaro asked curious after Nakai and Ueda had left right after the announcement.

“For sure! Kamiyama knows how to tease people and if he wants to he can beat Fuma just through talking!”

“I don’t want to say that I’m looking forward to it, but it sounds interesting!” Kentaro replied with a small chuckle.

***

“Is this really a good idea?” Taiga asked worried talking to Ueda after Kentaro had stepped into the ring with Kitayama.

“Why not? It’s good to fight with stronger opponents from time to time and he fought a lot against Nikaido and Senga already, so a new opponent is just right. You fight against Fuma and Senga sometimes as well AND you say all the time how I should trust him more, right?”

“You know that’s not what I meant!” Taiga replied looking over to the door. Nikaido and Senga had still not shown up for the training, but it was just a matter of time.

“I don’t care for Nikaido’s opinion to be honest. I’m the trainer, end of discussion!”

Taiga was taken aback by his strict tone. Somehow he sensed that something wasn’t right, but for now he wouldn’t ask. Instead he looked up at Kentaro, who seemed not really bothered by Ueda’s choice. 

“You don’t have to be nervous. I’m not planning on going serious on you.” Kitayama said with a light smile as Ueda gave them the okay to start.

“Don’t worry I’m used to getting beaten by 5th class fighters.” Kentaro said amused, but of course he knew that Kitayama wouldn’t make it easy for him. He had seen him fight against Senga and Fuma before and they would get all fired up after a while through Kitayama’s teasing, so normally Ueda had to stop them before someone got seriously hurt.

Kentaro had analyzed his fighting style a lot until now, but the problem was that he showed no routine. Even when he faced the same opponent again he would use a complete different fighting style than before.

“Come on Kentaro you can do it!” Fuma shouted from the side, but gained a slap on the shoulder from Kento in return.

“Says the one who jumped out the ring the first time you fought against him.”

“Stupid, don’t say that in front of everyone!” Fuma smacked Kento on the back of his head making the others laugh.

“Fuma we were all there, you can’t hide that!” Tegoshi replied with a teasing smile making Fuma growl at him.

“I would have done the same, trust me! Kitayama can be scary if he gets serious!” Kochi replied understanding.

As everyone fell silent again Kentaro finally dared to start his first attack, but as he had guessed Kitayama dodged everything without a problem.

Kentaro knew that there was no reason for him to hold back, he was the weaker one of them and even if he would attack seriously Kitayama would have no problems blocking his attack. But he didn’t want to put his cards on the table too soon. For now he tried several techniques and tried to find a way through his defense.

As Kentaro tried to attack straight on Kitayama blocked instead of stepping out of his way and even though Kentaro tried to get away he wasn’t fast enough to stop him from trapping his arms on his back. He let out a painful whine as his grip went even tighter as he tried to struggle against it.

“And now?” Kitayama asked in an amused voice.

“I could ask you the same!” Kentaro replied looking over his shoulder with an annoyed look. “Like this you stopped the fight, but you can’t win!”

“Oh are you sure of that?”

Kitayama started pushing him towards the side of the ring and even though Kentaro tried to free himself he couldn’t. He stopped moving as Kentaro hit the ropes with his chest.

“Just imagine that this would be the tournament ring. One more step and I would push you out the ring!”

Sure he was used to lose against Nikaido or Senga, also Fuma was out of his reach, but it was Kitayama’s attitude that made him so angry that he didn’t wait for Ueda to stop the fight, but tried to fight back again.

“Don’t you think it would be easier-“

To give up was what he wanted to say, but Kentaro took him by full surprise as he let himself drop to the floor so that Kitayama couldn't get a grip on his arms anymore. The moment he had freed himself he didn't hesitate to use one of his favorite moves with which he lifted himself off the ground with the hands kicking upwards. He would normally not show his best techniques in the training anymore since Nikaido had told him that it would be better to just use them at their private training and at the tournaments, but he didn't want to hold back anymore. He didn't actually hit Kitayama with his sudden attack, but his opponent was at least forced to step back until he was out of his reach.

"Kentaro is full of surprises, as always." Juri stated while crossing his arms in front of his chest with an appraciating nod.

"I wonder if he will even make it to the 4th class like his." Kochi asked curious with a teasing smile at Fuma.

"As if!" Fuma replied immediately, but it was obvious that he was surprised by Kentaro's comebacks as well.

"And he doesn't even need to get angry at Nikaido anymore to have such an awesome comeback." Tegoshi said also more than interested in the fight.

"Hey it's not even decided if he will make it into the 3rd class, so could we stop praising him so much?" Fuma asked kind of annoyed gaining a chuckle from Kento, who's smile vanished on Fuma's evil side glare.

"Be careful or Fuma will get back into your fighting class just to beat you up!" Juri said teasing, but a sudden impact made them finally spend attention to the fight again. Kentaro had landed on the ground after trying to spin around Kitayama and kick him from the side, but Kitayama had seen it coming in the last moment sending him to the ground with a counter attack.

"You are full of surprises!" Kitayama said still wearing his light smile, but now he actually had to focus and fight back serious or he would at least gain a few strong hits.

Kentaro just gave him a lopsided smile before he rushed forward again, but this time Kitayama blocked his attack right away, but before he could counter he lost sight of the boy who had ducked away and span around him so fast that he couldn't catch up with his movements. Before he could turn around to him Kentaro had jumped with one foot against the rope to be able to jump higher. The kick he landed against Kitayama's back was strong enough to force the other one to make a few steps forward to not lose balance.

"Wuhu, I knew he can make it!" Fuma cheered for him, but shut himself up as he felt Kento's and Juri's teasing stares on him. "That doesn't mean that I want him to get stronger. He would still not stand a chance against me."

"Right, he is good. But he has no chance."

Everyone turned towards Kitayama as his voice suddenly got darker. As he turned back towards Kentaro his look sent cold shivers down his spine. For a moment he felt like it wasn't the same person standing in front of him anymore. And before he could react Kitayama dashed forward attacking Kentaro straight on with a punch. At the last moment he was able to dodge it, but Kitayama's knee collided with his ribs just a second later making him gasp for air. Instead of giving him a second to breath he grabbed him by the back of his shirt and threw him through half of the ring. He landed with a painful yelp and tried to get up right away as Kitayama was approaching him with fast steps.

"Enough!" Ueda shouted, but Kitayama just kept moving forward. Even as Kentaro failed to stand up in time to get into a defense stand Kitayama wouldn't stop. He had grabbed the boy by the hair and was lunging out for a punch. Kentaro looked at him with sheer panic showing in his eyes, because he was sure that this fight was about to get out of control.

But Kitayama was stopped at the last moment as Ueda had jumped into the ring grabbing Kitayama's arm before he could punch Kentaro. For a moment it seemed like it was over like his, but then the door opened and Nikaido and Senga stepped in looking around confused.

Ueda had looked over to them as well and that was when Kitayama used his distraction and let go of Kentaro to lunge out for Ueda with his free hand.

"WATCH OUT!" It was Taiga who had called out for him just in time so he could dodge his attack. It was the first time for Kentaro to see Ueda fight even though it was over before it even started. Ueda just needed one really fast and accurate punch to send Kitayama down to the ground.

“I SAID ENOUGH!” Ueda shouted at him and Kitayama stared at him somehow perplex as if he needed a moment to realize that he had lost control over his fight.

Everyone stared at the three in the ring and just as Kentaro’s mind finally caught up with what had just happened he dared to move. But as he tried to get up he breathed in sharp realizing that Kitayama's last attacks had hit him quite hard.

“Kentaro!” Finally Nikaido also seemed to get at least a little bit of what was going on and while Nikaido jumped into the ring, Senga rushed over to the others asking for an explanation.

“Don’t worry, everything is alright.” Kentaro tried to convince him as he helped him back on his feet, but without wanting to he looked over to Kitayama who was also back on his feet looking over to him with a kind of apologizing look. Nikaido turned around to him and was about to approach him, but Ueda stepped in front of him giving him a warning look.

“Everyone is dismissed for today, training is over!” Ueda announced and reluctantly they moved towards the door one after another even though the training had just begun.

“I’ll bring you to the med room for now.” Nikaido said helping Kentaro out of the ring.

“Kentaro?” It was to everyone’s surprise Kitayama who spoke up, but he didn’t dare to approach the boy, not with Ueda and Nikaido between them.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to- ehm…freak out like this.”

Kentaro blinked at him confused, because when he had actually freaked at their fight he was the most frightening person he had ever seen and until just a second ago he understood why Nikaido and Ueda didn’t like him. He thought that they had maybe seen through his other side from the beginning already. But now his expression just showed guilt and Kentaro couldn’t blame him as he would normally do with another fighter. If his apology was honest or not, he couldn’t tell for sure, but again he couldn’t take Nikaido’s side and make Kitayama the bad guy. But for now Nikaido didn’t let them exchange any more words as he dragged Kentaro with him to the med room.

***

“Ueda, wait!” Taiga had followed him after he had remained in the training room alone with Kitayama for a moment after everyone had left, but of course Taiga wouldn’t just leave like this. “Everything alright?”

“I just warned him, that if this would happen again he would be out of the tournament.” He replied not even turning around to the boy as he walked down the corridor towards his room. He opened the door to his room and turned around to Taiga with a kind of unwelcoming look, but Taiga didn’t care as he passed him entering his room first.

“There is more to it, isn’t there?” Taiga asked calmly as he sat down on Ueda’s bed.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Ueda said as he sat down on a chair opposite of him.

“Oh come on, you didn’t want them to fight from the beginning, I’m not stupid! But you let them fight anyways and there must be a good reason behind it!”

“if you think so.” Ueda shrugged his shoulders obviously not in the mood to deepen the conversation.

“You know that I’m here for you to talk to, right? If you are not even telling me it must be something huge and to be honest at a moment like this, when a big tournament is coming up this is not really making me feel really safe!” Taiga explained as he got up just to sit down on the armrest of Ueda’s chair giving him a worried look. The latter sighed grabbing Taiga carefully by the hips so that he could slide down from the armrest to sit on his lap.

“I don’t want to worry you!”

“Then tell me!”

Ueda bit his lip looking at the boy with a conflicting look, but of course Taiga’s expression showed him that he wouldn’t let him off like this.

“You’re right, I didn’t want them to fight. But I had this feeling about Kitayama since he fought against Nikaido and I just got it proven through their fight. I feel sorry for involving Kentaro, but exactly because Kitayama seems to get along with Kentaro quite well and he would underestimate him in a fight, it needed to be him, because I needed to know.”

“To know what?” Taiga asked impatient.

“If he isn’t who he pretends to be.”

“You lost me.”

“Nakai had said he saw him fight in a street fight before and that is how he got interested in letting him join the club, but I doubt that street fights were his only fighting background. He was trained and that pretty good.”

“So he tricked Nakai?”

“I’m not sure if Nakai really cared, because a good fighter is a good fighter and we are not really asking for any background here, we all had crappy lives before entering here or at least partly.”

“As I remember your life was quite awesome before you entered the fight clubs.” Taiga suddenly replied, chuckling innocently as Ueda pinched him in the arm making him squeal.

“What’s so awesome about traveling around the country, doing the work you can find and sleep wherever it was the cheapest?”

“It’s called an adventure and I would have given much to be able to experience that. My life was always strict and completely planned.”

“Maybe I’ll show you around the country sometime in the future.” Ueda said with a light smile and he would have loved to stroke a strain out of Taiga’s eyes which had fallen in his face as he leant forward chuckling, but he stopped his hand from moving automatically.

“Promise?” Taiga asked in a playful voice and Ueda just nodded giving him a smile in return.

“Promise!”


	6. Chapter 6

“You were lucky his kick didn’t damage your ribs. If he would have used just a little bit more force they would have been broken again.” The doc explained while examining Kentaro after his fight against Kitayama.

“Good for him or I would have broken his neck as a payback.” Nikaido growled while running up and down the room after Kentaro had stopped him from rushing out the med room to get into a fight with Kitayama after he had dropped him off.

“Would you please sit down?” Kentaro said finally after the doc said he should rest in the med room for the rest of the day and left them alone for now.

“How can you be so calm? Just imagine what would have happened when Ueda wouldn’t have interfered in time.”

“Then I would have a few broken ribs and maybe a few other injuries as well and wouldn’t be able to enter the tournament.”

“Correct.”

“And?”

Nikaido narrowed his eyes at him kind of angry, not sure if the boy was treating this as a joke or not.

“Fuma knocked me out for a whole day once and Senga dislocated my shoulder two days before a tournament, so I couldn’t enter. It’s not like this is something they all do on purpose.”

“But Kitayama did!”

“You didn’t even saw the fight, you came after it was already over!”

“But-“

“No but! How dare you judge him all the time without even knowing him?” Kentaro looked up at Nikaido with an angry glare, but the latter didn’t show any guilt. “You disliked him from the first day and sure he might have some bad points and freaking out at a fight is definitely one of them. But he helped me out a lot and he saved my life, which you by the way didn’t even tell me!”

Nikaido’s eyes grew wide on Kentaro’s words. He wanted to know how he had find out about it, but Kentaro was already so furious that he had jumped off the bed and walked away from him his arms crossed in front of his chest. At the moment he wouldn’t really want to explain details to him, all he wanted was an apology, but Nikaido stayed silent, of course.

“Forget it, I guess you are just jealous!” Kentaro continued after a moment.

“I hope that was a joke!” Nikaido’s look had darkened all of a sudden and he approached the boy with big steps.

“You think so? Because for me it is the most logical explanation.” Kentaro replied with a piercing look.

“All I try is to protect you, as I always do!”

“Protecting me of what? Kitayama’s tries to somehow fit in the club even though you try to make him the bad guy every time he does something that doesn’t please you?”

“Kentaro stop talking such nonsense. Okay fine, he saved you. Maybe he really wanted to or he just tried to look like the nice guy in front of anyone, I don’t really care, because fact is that there is something he is not telling us and as long as I don’t know what he is hiding, I won’t trust him!”

“Then I won’t trust you either anymore!” Kentaro’s words were harsh and Nikaido looked at him stunned as his look turned kind of hurt. “You are hiding so much from me for such a long time already, but you want to tell me that you can’t trust someone from whom you ASSUME that he is hiding something? Don’t make me laugh!”

Instead of getting even angrier Kentaro’s voice had gotten lower with every word. He looked away letting out a long sigh waiting for any reaction from Nikaido, but there was none. Of course there wasn’t. As always when they started to talk about his past the latter fell completely silent, but Kentaro had enough.

“If you have nothing to say anymore, I would like to ask you to leave so I can rest.”

“Kentaro, I-“

“Out!” Kentaro interrupted him as Nikaido’s voice had given away that he was not about to tell him anything, but try to argue with him again, but he shut up as the boy faced him again with tears glittering in his eyes. “This conversation is over and as long as you are not willing to tell me about your past I am not willing to listen to anything you say anymore!”

Nikaido bit his lip not moving for a moment, but then he nodded slowly and turned towards the door. As he opened it he looked back at the boy once more, but he had sat down on the bed not even facing him. He hesitated another moment, but then stepped out of the room closing the door slowly. He remained in front of it for several minutes not sure what to do.

“Hey, everything alright?” Senga had suddenly showed up next to him, but Nikaido just gave him an empty stare before leaving to the other direction which led to the exit of the club.

“Oh no, that’s not good.” Senga said putting his hands to his hips and letting out a long sigh before running after Nikaido.

***

“Juri that was my slice!” Fuma yelled trying to snatch back the last slice of bread which had been lying on his plate.

“You are talking with Kochi for almost half an hour now. I doubt you still wanted to eat it!” Juri replied laughing, holding the slice triumphing in his hand.

“I was about to eat it and when you’re not giving it back I might bite you later if I get hungry!”

“Okay now it’s getting weird. Here you go!” Juri threw the bread back on Fuma’s plate while Kochi laughed at both of them. But then a shattering sound made them look towards the other tables. Except for them there were just 4 other fighters sitting at a table, plus Kento who had eaten alone and wanted to pass by the other table, but was obviously stopped by the outstretched leg of one of them.

“Look what you’ve done kid!” One of the others shouted in a mocking voice after Kento’s plate had shattered to the ground and he had tried to stop his fall on their table resulting with one of their plates crashing to the ground as well. Kento apologized immediately, bowing to all of them before getting on his knees to pick up the shards of the plates.

“I wonder how long this kid will survive here! He gets into trouble each day without even asking for it!” Juri said looking at him with a kind of understanding look.

“The problem is that he doesn’t even try to get friends. He is always running off alone after the training. I didn’t even see him in the shower room once. He has the room next to mine and I often hear him leave his room in the middle of the night, maybe he takes his showers at that time.” Kochi explained in a neutral voice turning away from them to eat the rest of his food.

Fuma was about to look away as well when one of the other fighters got up and stepped on Kento’s hand the moment he wanted to pick up a piece of the plate. He screamed out as his hand got pressed down on the sharp piece, but the latter would just laugh and crouch down to him his foot still remaining on his hand.

“Oh come on are they really pushing it that far just because of a broken plate?” Juri asked annoyed, but got a burning stare from Kochi in return. “What?”

“Says the one who fought with Taiga over the exact same thing!”

“That was different-“

As Kento screamed out again, because the other one was threatening to punch him Fuma jumped up and threw his plate through the room without a warning, making Juri and Kochi flinch. The plate shattered next to the fighter holding on to Kento.

“WOULD YOU CUT THE CRAP OUT? I’M TRYING TO HAVE A MEAL HERE!” Fuma approached them with big steps and the remaining fighters backed off immediately all being in a lower fighting class than him. But the one who started everything was also in the 4th class. He pushed Kento away so that he fell to the ground and stepped in front of Fuma.

“Oh I’m so extremely sorry!” The other fighter replied mocking. He was almost a head taller than Fuma and seemed more than confident to win a fight against him. Fuma grabbed him by the collar, making Juri and Kochi finally jump up as well.

“Fuma, calm down!” Kochi warned him, but it was obvious that he didn’t want to.

“Please don’t fight! I’m sorry for causing trouble.” Kento said in a low voice, getting up again.

“Oh how cute our lonely wolf tries to calm everyone down. But sorry boy, no one cares about you!” The other fighter said arrogantly, but he regretted his words as Fuma punched him so hard that he crushed into the chairs.

“I CARE!” Fuma shouted at him stepping in front of Kento intuitively as the other fighters moved towards them again, but stopped on Fuma’s death glare. “So if anyone of you has a problem with him how about you come to me to discuss it?”

“Who do you think you are that you can play that high and mighty?” The fighter shouted back as he was on his feet again.

“I’m his protector!” Fuma yelled before turning towards Kento who looked at him with wide eyes. “Any problems with that?” He asked the boy, this time with a softer voice, but Kento shook his head right away and his lips showed a faint smile.

“Good for him, then I can beat you up instead! That is way more fun!” The other fighter grabbed Fuma by the collar throwing him to the ground. Juri and Kochi rushed over to them the moment the other fighters were about to interfere as well. Juri attacked them straight on while Kochi pulled Kento away.

“If you want to be a protector you have to be stronger than your opponents!” The fighter shouted at him laughing, while Fuma tried to kick him away, but failed as the other one sat down on his stomach about to punch him.

Kochi had rushed over to Juri to help him, but the other three fighters were strong as well and with one more on their side it was hard to get the upper hand.

Fuma had finally succeeded in kicking the other one off him, but before he could get back on his feet he had tackled him into the next table making him gasp as the back of his head hit the edge of the table.

“Look you are not even able to defend yourself how do you want to protect someone?” The other one ask laughing as he looked down on Fuma who tried to get up, but failed. He put one hand to the back of his head cursing. He felt dizzy and he knew that if he couldn’t block the next attack he would lose, but the moment the other one tried to rush forward a chair clashed on his back making him scream out and fall to his knees. Fuma looked up at Kento who was standing behind him holding the chair with shaking hands.

“A protector is not alone! He can always relay on the one he is protecting!” Kento yelled at the fighter with an angry voice.

“Good one Kento!” Kochi shouted from the other side of the room where they had finally gotten the upper hand over the other fighters. “But next time use your fists!”

Kochi flinched as Juri hit him, shaking his head.

“What was that for?”

“For reminding you who tried to attack Kentaro the same way!”

“I guess we all changed a lot over the time!” Kochi replied laughing and Juri smiled back at him. Seeing those fighters getting into the same pointless fight as they did before made them realize how stupid they have been in the beginning.

“Then how about you take his punches then as well?” The other fighter hissed as he got up again. Kento let the chair drop and backed off until he had reached the wall and couldn’t get away anymore.

“Leave him alone!” Fuma growled as he tried to get up again, but failed again as everything started spinning in front of his eyes. Juri and Kochi tried to rush over to help Kento, but they were stopped by the other fighters again.

The other one lunged out for a punch and Kento closed his eyes knowing that he wouldn’t stand a chance.

“STOP!”

Just one word and the whole room fell silent. Everyone turned around to him and the fighter in front of Kento turned towards him with an angry glare, but as he realized who was standing in the door he stepped back automatically.

“How about you get out for some time to cool down a bit?” The one in the door asked with a light smile on his face while stepping away from the door. The other fighters got the message and moved over to the door without another word. The one in front of Kento moved over to him slowly as well, but gave Fuma another death glare. As they had all left the room Kochi let out a long relieved sigh and Juri dropped to the floor with a relieved expression.

“Are you all okay?”

Kochi was the first to rush over to him giving him a smile and bowing lightly as he stopped in front of him. “Thanks to you, yes!”

“No need to thank me. I just don’t like unnecessary fighting!” The one in question replied patting Kochi’s head.

“Kitayama, the only one who manages to always be at the right place at the right time!” Juri said laughing.

“I wouldn’t say always, but sometimes.” Kitayama replied with a small chuckle looking over to Kento who had already rushed over to Fuma to help him up again.

“Are you okay?” He asked carefully as Fuma cursed again as he touched the back of his head.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing.”

“Let me see!” Kento made Fuma sit down on a chair moving behind him examining his injury.

“I wonder if those two will turn out okay.” Kochi voiced out his thoughts, but Juri just nodded with a brief smile.

“They definitely will.” Juri said as Fuma slashed away Kento’s hands trying to get away from him. But as Kento ran after him and begged him to go with him to the med room to get his head treated Fuma yelled at him to leave him alone. “But I guess Kento will be the first one needing protection from his protector.” Juri added making everyone laugh.

***

Nikaido slammed his glass back on the table letting out a long sigh, again!

“If you don’t want to be here, how about getting back to the club?” Senga asked carefully after they had ran around the backstreets for some while before entering some billiard place.

“No thanks, I prefer staying here.” Nikaido replied before walking back to the billiard table to sink the last two balls in a row and winning already the 3rd game with that.

“Would you then at least tell me what had happened before? It’s not like you to run around the bars for hours especially not when you left Kentaro behind.”

Nikaido had put the billiard balls back on the table to start the next game, but on the mention of Kentaro’s name he missed the white one with the cue.

“Let me guess, you fought about Kitayama again?”

“What do you mean with again?”

“So I’m right!?”

“I didn’t say that!” Nikaido hissed at him moving back to the bar to empty his glass in one go.

“I talked to Juri and Kochi after you brought Kentaro to the med room and it seemed like Kitayama suddenly freaked and got extremely violent.” Senga explained not continuing the game, but walking up to Nikaido leaning against the bar.

“And?” Nikaido asked annoyed as Senga gave him a waiting look like he wanted him to say something.

“Oh come on! This is exactly what worries you! His strength, not knowing anything about his past and the fact that if he gets emotional he freaks out. You are afraid that he is the same as you!”

Nikaido didn’t answer, but his look told Senga that he had guessed right.

“But don’t you think that you are overthinking this a little bit? We have a lot of people with weird characteristics!”

“It’s just his behavior that annoys me, not more.”

Senga let out a disbelieving snort on that. Even as Nikaido looked at him with an angry glare he didn’t seem bothered by it at all.

“Who are you kidding here? You want my version? You are afraid that if Kentaro gets too close to him something could happen.”

“Not just to Kentaro, but to all of you.” Nikaido finally admitted. His look has darkened and he had grabbed his glass so tight that it could shatter any moment. But Senga clapped him on the back so that he would look up at him.

“I know you are always pessimistic, but it’s been almost two months and everyone seems to get along well with him, except for you and Ueda. So how about you try to at least accept his presence? I promise you to keep an eye on him as well, but if you keep going like this you will lose more than you gain!” Senga gave him an understanding smile and Nikaido seemed to have gotten the message as he stepped back from the bar with a brief nod.

“Fine, but I’m allowed to punch you, if my worries come true.” He said it with a light smile, but the worry that it could really come to the worst in the end was more than visible. Senga didn’t let it bother him though as he just chuckled.

“Deal! Then let’s head back, it’s getting late. It was kind of nice to have a day off again, but the Osaka club is coming soon and I bet Ueda will torture us for the next week.”

“Great, more stuff to look forward to.” Nikaido said with a chuckle as he followed Senga out the bar.

***

“Protector?” Kentaro asked again after Kento had dragged Fuma over to the med room followed by Juri and Kochi. Kitayama had excused himself right afterwards, having some other business to attend, but the boys guessed that he didn’t want to come with them because he knew that Kentaro was still in the med room.

“Is that such a big deal?” Fuma asked annoyed rolling his eyes at Kentaro.

“Not for me, but for you. Are you even sure you know how all the protecting stuff works?” Kentaro asked chuckling, but before Fuma could reply something Kento had put some bandage over Fuma’s wound, making him flinch. They had told him to wait for the doc, but Kento seemed to be more than skilled with all the medical stuff as well, so he insisted to treat him already. Fuma flicked his tongue turning around to the boy who had immediately taken away the bandage again.

“Be a little bit gentler, would you?”

Kento nodded slowly and continued to put the bandage on without uttering another word. The other three boys shared a brief look and chuckled in a low voice. It would take those two some time to get along better, but it was maybe for the best to start everything from the protecting. Everything had started with “just” protecting for Kentaro as well and on that thought his look darkened a little bit and his smile faded.

“Everything alright?” Kochi asked as he saw his absent look.

“Yes, all good.” He answered right away getting up from the bed. “I guess I will leave for my room. It’s getting late and it doesn’t seem like I got any serious damage from the fight before. Would you tell the doc that I left?”

Kochi nodded as Kentaro passed them without saying anything else. He just waved at them and left the room. He walked down the corridor towards his room with slow steps, lost in his thoughts. Hadn’t he overreacted before? Seeing Kento and Fuma, remembering what he had gone through with Nikaido until now,he had finally realized that it had been completely natural for Nikaido to react this way towards Kitayama. Sure he wasn’t just worried for Kentaro that was for sure, but it was part of his behavior. Nikaido disliked Kitayama out of some to Kentaro unknown reason, but he also just did his job and tried to keep Kentaro away from him exactly because he had such a bad feeling about him and he didn’t want Kentaro to get hurt.

The upcoming tournament was getting to all of them, not just because it was another no.1 club they had to compete against, but also because the club would come 5 days before the tournament already on Nakai’s request. So they had just one week left to somehow face up with the fact that they would have them around the whole day for almost a week.

Kentaro let out a long sigh as he walked around the corner to his room, but as he looked up to his door he stopped as he spotted Nikaido leaning against its frame. It wasn’t like he was still angry at him, he had been at fault for their argument before as well, but he didn’t know how Nikaido was thinking about it and he wasn’t in the mood to get into another argument. But before he could think about turning around again the latter had spotted him turning towards him and to Kentaro’s surprise it didn’t seem to him as if he would be angry at all.

“Kochi had just told me that he had seen you leaving the club with Senga right after the training.” Kentaro started carefully after walking up to him and he was more than relived as Nikaido formed a brief smile.

“Just for a while, we just came back.”

“Sorry for earlier, I guess the stress is just getting to me a little bit too much at the moment.” Kentaro added before Nikaido could say something else.

“Same here.”

Kentaro didn’t wait for a real apology, because it was still Nikaido and he wouldn’t get all emotional over another fight between them. Kentaro looked over his shoulder, but there was no one in sight and as he looked back at Nikaido he could see that he obviously didn’t just wait to say sorry and then leave again.

Kentaro let him in first, looking around once more before following him and locking the door. Sure most of the others knew about them, but that didn’t mean that they couldn’t get into trouble if the wrong people would see them enter his room together.

As Kentaro turned around again he found himself pressed against his door Nikaido’s lips on his so fast that he couldn’t even take another breath. Nikaido slipped his hands under the boy’s shirt right away and Kentaro knew better than to resist. He put his hands around Nikaido’s neck and parted his lips as he knew that Nikaido would deepen the kiss sooner or later anyways.

“What’s with the sudden craving? It’s not like we didn’t do this just two days ago.” Kentaro asked, smiling against Nikaido’s lips.

“Two are already one day too much in between.” He replied before kissing Kentaro again. He slipped his tongue inside his mouth and moved his arms away under his shirt and around his hips making Kentaro moan. Without breaking the kiss he lifted the boy up making him close his legs around his hips before carrying him over to the bed.

Nikaido finally broke the kiss again as he dropped Kentaro on the bed and took off his shirt. Kentaro smiled up at him, licking over his lips as Nikaido opened his belt.

“Like what you see?” He asked in a husky voice making Kentaro chuckle.

“Still too many clothes in the way to say that for sure.”

Nikaido gave him a lopsided smile, but Kentaro stripped out of his own shirt standing up from the bed reaching out for Nikaido’s pants before the latter could strip out of them. Kentaro looked up to him while he slowly opened his pants and pulled them down as much as possible while still facing him.

“So say again, who is the one with the craving here?”

“You want me to stop then?” Kentaro replied as he went on his knees pulling his pants completely down and tugging on his underwear while waiting for an answer.

“Trust me, if I want you to stop you will know.” He replied with a longing smile and the boy got up once more to turn them around and make Nikaido sit down on the bed. He got rid of the rest of his own clothes completely before making Nikaido crawl back a little bit more on the bed so that he could sit down on top of him.

“I would say you forgot something!” Nikaido said teasing, but as he lifted up his hips to get rid of the last piece of fabric in the way Kentaro stopped him. He slid down from him again and reached out for his underwear. It was obvious what he was about to do, but it was the first time that he took the lead like this. Nikaido looked a little bit confused for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure if Kentaro was really sure if he wanted to do what he was offering, but as he tugged on his pants impatiently, giving Nikaido an intense stare the latter finally moved up his hips so that Kentaro could get rid of them.

“Now I can say that I really like what I see.” Kentaro said as he had moved down between Nikaido’s legs while the other one watched him with an amused look. Even as Kentaro moved his hands slowly up his tights until he reached his crotch he didn’t take his eyes off him. Just as he reached out for him and took him in his hands his look changed. Kentaro stroke up and down his full length enjoying how Nikaido’s look got more and more pleasured. He continued his movements for a moment licking his lips as Nikaido finally escaped the first moan.

“You are totally enjoying this, don’t you?” Nikaido asked as Kentaro gave him a satisfied smirk.

“Not more than you do I hope or I’m doing something wrong.” He replied as he moved one hand up to his stomach feeling his abs. Then he finally took him in his mouth moving his hand back to cover the rest of his length with his hands.

Nikaido escaped another moan as he moved his tongue over him and started moving in a fast rhythm. It seemed like he would enjoy teasing him a lot as he took him out almost completely again to like over his tip his lips forming a smile as Nikaido grabbed the boy’s hair as another moan escaped him.

“You’ll get payback for each second of this, just so you know!” Nikaido groaned, but another moan forced him to shut up again. Kentaro took him in as much as possible again, getting aroused by Nikaido’s moans as well, but as Nikaido was about to get close he tugged on the boy’s hair desperately and after another moment Kentaro backed off to look up at him. First he thought he did something to make it unpleasant for Nikaido, but the latter’s pleasured look as he suddenly sat up and reached out for him showed him that it had to be something else. Nikaido sat up on his knees pulling Kentaro up as well so he could kiss him again.

“Don’t worry, I just didn’t want it to be over that fast.” Nikaido explained as he read Kentaro’s confused look.

“So it’s already payback time?” Kentaro asked teasing as he moved his lips over Nikaido’s collarbone making him shiver. Nikaido chuckled as he leant forward and bit in the boy’s earlobe making him moan. But then Nikaido moved around him suddenly, so that he was sitting behind him.

“What are you doing?” He asked curious and as he looked at him over his shoulder he saw Nikaido’s teasing smile.

“You asked if it is payback time…” Nikaido whispered into his ear before lifting him up on his hips and entered him without any preparation. “Yes it is!”

It wasn’t exactly painful, because Kentaro was used to it, but Nikaido’s sudden and rough movements made him let out a painful gasp. But as more Nikaido moved as more pleasured his sounds became. Maybe it was because they had fought before that they turned everything upside down this night or it was just the fact that they had just one week more until they had to completely ignore each other for the time when the Osaka club was staying at their club. But whatever it was they both liked this exciting feeling.

“Nika, please.” Kentaro begged after Nikaido had rushed in deeper still holding on to his hips. But as Kentaro was about to touch himself if he wouldn’t do him the favor Nikaido stopped his hands from moving down.

“First we still have to do something about this nickname, not that you start calling me that at the training and second I said it’s payback, so you have to go without today.”

“You can’t be serious!” Kentaro complained in a whining tone as Nikaido made sure that he couldn’t move his hands to touch himself.

“I’m sure you can go without.” Nikaido whispered in his ear before he made him bend over so it was easier for him to move. But he still held on to his hands pressing them down on the mattress. Kentaro shivered as the latter’s chest rested on his back and he started moving again, this time in a fast rhythm right away.

Nikaido moved his lips over the boy’s neck biting him here and there making him shiver. He had succeeded in turning him into a moaning mess and as he was too close already as well he let go of the boy’s hands to move one of his own down over his stomach, but he stopped it before it would get into contact with his erection.

“Please-“ Kentaro begged in between his moans now grabbing the sheets on the bed. First he just gained a mischievous chuckle from Nikaido, but while he had to stabilize himself with one hand he finally moved his free hand around him stroking over him with a firm grip. Kentaro let out a pleasured noise between a whine and a moan as Nikaido had finally been willing to help him out. It just took Nikaido a few more strokes to make Kentaro reach his climax while muffling his moan in the sheets. Nikaido followed just moments later holding himself up so that Kentaro could turn around under him.

“I swear to you, if you would have left me like this I would never have done you any favor again.” The boy complained, but cracked a smile as Nikaido chuckled.

“I bet you would have made it without my help as well.”

“I’m not willing to find out!”

“Then next time stop teasing me so I have no reason to give you any payback.”

Kentaro reached out for Nikaido’s cheek and the latter leant down following the boy’s hand movement, but just before their lips touched the boy chuckled and held him up with his other hand pressed against his shoulder.

“Careful, I can play this game as well.” He said in a serious tone as he stroke over the latter’s lips before turning away and trying to move away under him.

“You little brat!” Nikaido dropped to the mattress and closed his arms around Kentaro’s upper body so he couldn’t get away. Kentaro let out a chuckle mixed with a small scream as they struggled for the upper hand. Nikaido turned him around so that they would face each other again and as he stroke over his cheek he finally stopped resisting and faced him with a bright smile.

“It’s just one week, we can make it somehow and it is not like we are not allowed to speak to each other normally. They should have the protector thing as well, right?” Kentaro asked curious and Nikaido nodded pulling Kentaro closer to rest his chin on his hair.

“Yes they shouldn’t get suspicious about me as a protector, but I don’t want to risk anything.”

“Means we still have 5 nights to prepare for our lack of private time.” Kentaro replied with a kind of childish smile as Nikaido backed off a little bit to look at him. He got a bright smile from Nikaido in return, finally one of those smiles he always waited for to see.

“That means 5 nights with a huge lack of sleep.”

“I won’t even ask what you have planned then.” Kentaro said chuckling gaining a light clap on his forehead in return before Nikaido moved his hand under the younger one’s chin to give him a light and short kiss.

“At least I have nothing planned that doesn’t involve you.”

“Perfect, then we have the same plans.”

 


	7. Chapter 7

 

“You two are creeping me out, just so you know!” Taiga complained after dragging Kentaro away from the dancefloor over to the bar.

“Why? We’re having fun, is that bad?” Kentaro asked with a light smile as he looked over to Nikaido who seemed a little bit angry at Taiga for dragging Kentaro away from him.

“That is exactly what worries me. Nikaido is normally not the type to get drunk like this and dance around with someone like he would love to lay you right on the dancefloor.”

“We are not that bad.” Kentaro replied, still looking over to Nikaido who walked off the dancefloor with Senga who had definitely spoken to Taiga before to get them away from each other for at least some time.

“Right, you are worse.” Taiga said with a chuckle before ordering two drinks even though the barkeeper gave him a doubting look about his age.

“Can you blame us? From tomorrow on we will have a tough week.”

“Don’t remind me.” Taiga whined before taking the drinks from the bar and handing one to Kentaro. “Ueda is freaking me out for the whole week already. He will turn his room into a mess over the next days.”

"He really doesn't like it to have another club coming, does he?"

"He hates it even more to go there, because he has no place to pull back to if everything gets too much and I can't get near him too much at another club."

"But it's his payment, wouldn't it be okay if they knew it? It's not like you have to hide that."

And there it was, a look Kentaro had seen so often when the topic changed this way. He would suddenly get really quiet and his look turned kind of hurt, but Kentaro had given up on asking him about it too much after he had almost freaked out on him once as he tried to find out more about his behavior. But truth was that even if Kentaro pretended that he wouldn't see it, he knew of course that Taiga was hiding from his own feelings.

Kentaro sighed before putting his drink back on the counter and squeezed Taiga's shoulder who looked up at him with an apologizing look.

"Whenever you feel like talking about it just remember I'm here to listen. Just not right now, because I really have to go to the toilet."

Taiga escaped a chuckle on Kentaro's serious face while saying that and Taiga hit him against the shoulder before walking over to the dancefloor again joining Fuma, Kento, Juri and Kochi which had come with them. Ueda had also accompanied them, but he was more the type to sit in the corner and watch over everyone instead of getting wild like most of the younger ones. But like this they thought at least twice about causing any trouble, because with Ueda watching them it wasn't that easy excused anymore.

Kentaro shook his head at them as Fuma shouted around way too hyperactive while Kento tried to somehow make him shut up. As he walked over to the toilets he saw two boys leaning on the wall looking around kind of interested. Kentaro had never seen them before and while the one, which seemed to be the younger one of them even though he was really tall, seemed really into party mood, obviously trying to convince the other one to get on the dancefloor with him, the other one seemed more than bored by the whole club atmosphere as he had his hands in his pockets looking at his companion kind of annoyed as he tried to drag him over to the crowd. Kentaro had to smile at them as they reminded him of all the people in the fight club with all their contrary personalities and even though they all could get annoyed at each other a lot they would normally all get along pretty well.

The next person coming in his view made him stop moving for a moment. It was a man around the same age as Ueda and he stared directly at him. Even as Kentaro stared back at him he didn’t take his eyes off him. His build was similar to Nikaido’s and even his look gave him the same weird feeling as Nikaido’s did as he had entered the club, with one difference! Instead of feeling something that interested him he felt scared.

But before Kentaro had to decide if he should continue walking towards him or not, because he was standing right in his way the stranger gave him a lopsided smile and walked away. Kentaro looked after him for a moment before he finally moved on.

***

Fuma and the others got way too hyper for the atmosphere in the club and even though Kochi and Kento tried to calm them down a little bit a few people were already glaring at them.

“Fuma, don’t you think you drank enough today?” Kento asked with a worried look trying to snatch the beer out of Fuma’s hand.

“Oh come on don’t be poor sports, the night has just started.” Fuma yelled enthusiastic and lifted up his arm, but as he moved it even more to the side it hit someone and the beer landed on that person’s clothes before the glass shattered on the ground.

“Ups.” Fuma said still with a smile, while Kento hurried to apologize to the person. He bowed and wanted to pick up the pieces as the other person grabbed him by the collar.

“How about your friend apologies instead of you and pays me for the shirt.” The short boy, with dark red dyed hair, asked annoyed.

“First you let go of him!” Fuma interfered right away, grabbing his wrist to make him let go of Kento before stepping in between them.

“Fuma calm down!” Kochi tried to calm him down, but it was obvious that he would definitely start a fight on the next stupid comment.

“Stop it! We promised to not cause problems!” A boy with longer brown hair came running stepping in front of him pushing him away from Fuma.

“He is the one who started it!” The older one complained, but didn’t try to push the boy away. He flicked his tongue at Fuma, but turned away.

“Making such a ruckus and then running away, coward.” Fuma laughed looking after him with a mocking smile and of course the other one turned around with an angry stare. The boy stopped him from attacking Fuma, but it was obvious that he wouldn’t be able to stop him if he would seriously try to pass him. Juri and Kochi had also moved forward trying to help Kento to hold Fuma back, who encouraged the other one to attack. Taiga had stood a little bit separated until now, but in between the shouting he realized something, Osaka-ben?

***

Kentaro had just stepped out the toilet again as he heared the shouting from the bar and as he rushed out he saw how Fuma was about to lunge out for a punch after he had shoved Juri, Kochi and Kento out his way. His opponent had also stepped forward pushing away the boy which was still standing in between them.

Kentaro started running towards them even though he knew he couldn’t stop their fight anymore, but then they were both suddenly stopped and Kentaro stopped running as he reached Juri and the others. The one who stood between them and had stopped both their punches with his palms was the man he had seen before.

“You are causing trouble whenever you can!” Another one said, suddenly approaching the one with the red hair slapping him on the back of his head and next to him appeared two boys, the ones which Kentaro had seen standing at the wall.

“Oh come on Yuma, this was not my fault. He started this!” The one in question growled, but before anyone could freak out again, Taiga finally stepped in between all of them after the man had stepped back as well after Fuma didn’t seem in the mood to attack again.

“Yuma! What are you guys already doing here?” Taiga asked stepping in front of the boy who looked at him kind of confused for a moment before he cracked a bright smile hugging the boy to everyone’s surprise.

“Taiga, long time no see! How are you?” Yuma asked totally happy.

“Good thanks, but…”

“Taiga!!!” One of the other two stepped forward almost pushing Yuma to the ground as he jumped at Taiga lifting him up in his arms. Kentaro and the others exchanged a short confused look, but they waited until they all seemed through with their greeting.

“I’m also happy to see you Kotaki!” Taiga let out after he had put him back on the ground, so that he could turn to the one Fuma had picked a fight with. “Kamiyama, right?” Taiga asked the boy with the red hair suddenly and he nodded confused. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you earlier. At the last tournament I just saw you once and you had normal black hair.” Taiga said apologizing.

“Ehm, boys what is going on?” As Ueda stepped next to everyone followed by Senga and Nikaido the other boys all stepped back bowing all at once greeting them. Fuma let out a disbelieving chuckle on their sudden change of behavior, but he received a glare from Kamiyama right away. The only one who didn’t move was the man which had stopped the fight.

“Ueda, long time no see!” Yuma said with a smile and apologized once more for Kamiyama’s behavior.

“I guess someone here has to apologize as well!” Ueda said as he looked over to Fuma. The boy didn’t move at first, but as Ueda  crossed his arms in front of his chest making a step towards him he finally turned towards the others bowing once and apologized reluctantly. Of course it was Kamiyama who gave him a mocking smile now, but they would get the chance to sort out their matters at the tournament.

“Why are you already in Tokyo?” Ueda asked confused while Nikaido automatically moved over to Kentaro who signaled him that everything was okay and that he had just come as well. He realized that the other man’s eyes had landed on them and he automatically made a step back causing Nikaido to follow his look and as those two looked at each other, the others fell silent for a moment.

“I’ll explain everything, but first let me introduce our members.” Yuma broke the silence putting a hand on the boy’s shoulder who had tried to stop Kamiyama before. “This here is Hirano Sho, our class one fighter.”

“You don’t have to add the class, you know!” Hirano said annoyed rolling his eyes at him, but Yuma just chuckled ruffling through his hair. “Those two are Ryusei and Kotaki, okay most of you know them already, but I see a few new faces on your side as well.”

“Koyama and Hamada weren’t in the mood to join us tonight so the last one to introduce is our number one fighter, Kato Shigeaki! You can call him Shige.” Yuma pointed at the man who had still locked his eyes with Nikaido, but finally turned away on the mention of his name and suddenly the heavy atmosphere was gone as he introducing himself. Just Nikaido remained tense and Kentaro could understand why. It was the first time that he had met someone like Shige who seemed dangerous even from the distance and even though he was showing a faint smile now, it wouldn’t take away Kentaro’s bad feeling.

“Where is Kimura?” Senga asked searching for their club's boss, but couldn’t see him.

“He already went to meet with Nakai, because we are early. He told us to stay out of trouble for tonight, but yeah okay we almost stayed out of it.” Yuma said apologizing.

“And your trainer?” Ueda asked.

“Standing right behind you.”

On the sound of a familiar voice Ueda turned around almost panicked. As he looked at the person in front of him he rolled his eyes and put his face in his palms for a moment.

“You can’t be serious!” He whined as his look fell on a bright smiling Nishikido. “Since when are you the trainer of the Osaka club?”

“Since my club wasn’t really what you could tell "working well", after the mess our fighters had created. After it fell apart it wasn't that easy to find another club in Tokyo which needed a trainer.” His look fell on Kentaro and Nikaido for a moment and Kentaro suddenly fell sick as he realized that there was now a person in the Osaka club which knew about them. Of course Ueda and Taiga knew him better, but no one could say if he wouldn’t use his knowledge against them eventually.

“So in the end I just moved back to my old town and took the opportunity to join a new club there.”

“Awesome…” Ueda growled annoyed, but for now he couldn’t do anything about it. At least they had stopped the boys from tearing each other apart right at the first evening, but it was just the beginning of a long week and the glares they gave each other showed already that it wouldn’t be easy for both sides to stay calm.

***

“I’m fine, stop asking!” Ueda said again as he put the water bottle down on the table with so much force that Taiga wondered how it didn’t break.

After what had happened the evening before at the bar they had all left together for the fight club where Nakai and Kimura had already been waiting for them. Kimura had apologized to all of them once more for the early arrival, but Nakai welcomed them anyways as they had already prepared everything.

But since they had started their training the next morning Ueda was more than aggressive and Senga took over most of the training so Ueda wouldn’t freak out at everyone. Normally he would be able to stay calm or at least calmer even with another club around, but with the sudden appearance of Nishikido he couldn’t calm down anymore. Taiga had tried to speak to him the whole morning, but he was unapproachable.

Until noon they would train and after that the Osaka club would be allowed to use the training room. But even though they split the training times that didn’t mean they wouldn’t clash at other places.

“When you’re fine then stop yelling at me when I ask you a normal question!” Taiga hissed, but got nothing more than an annoyed groan in reply.

“I wonder if this is really going to work out.” Kentaro said worried as he looked over to Taiga and Ueda.

“There might be small quarrels here and there, but that is normal. I guess we have to watch Fuma and Ueda the most.” Nikaido said still training on the punching bag even though he seemed already quite exhausted. Kentaro was sitting at the side of the ring taking a break. He had watched him the whole morning already and even though Nikaido tried to hide it he could see that something wasn’t right. For now Kentaro excused it on him drinking too much the evening before and tried not to worry too much, because Nikaido would scold him anyways if he would try to approach him too much with the other club around.

“Yeah and we have to watch you!” Kentaro replied after he had spaced out for a moment and as Nikaido gave him an angry side glance he threw his towel at him, but Nikaido caught it and put it around his shoulders approaching the boy. Kentaro escaped a small chuckle as Nikaido put his hand to the rope next to his head and leant down to him with a played angry gaze. But then the door opened and as Kitayama entered he backed off immediately, continuing his training as if nothing would have happened.

“You are late!” Ueda scolded him and Kitayama gave him an apologizing smile before walking over to the warming up area. As he passed Kentaro he gave him a brief smile and Kentaro nodded at him returning the smile. Just a second later he squealed as his towel hit him directly in the face. As he took it down and glared at Nikaido the latter had already turned away again behaving like he wouldn’t have done anything.

The rest of the training passed by without any problems, except for a still pissed Ueda who dismissed everyone earlier than usual so he could leave the room before Nishikido would come with his fighters. Even Nikaido left without saying another word and Kentaro could do nothing but still wonder what was wrong with him today. But with the other club around there was no way he would run after him all the time it would cause too much trouble after all. For now he walked up to Taiga who looked more than worried after Ueda had left the room without saying anything to him.

“Will he be alright until the tournament?” Kentaro asked as he stopped next to Taiga.

“I hope so. Normally he is in a bad mood at another club as well for the first day and then he calms down. Now that Nishikido also showed up he might need a few more days to calm down again.” Taiga replied with a kind of hurt look.

“I guess he doesn’t really want you to come over?” Kentaro guessed and Taiga’s silence showed him that he was right.

“How about you introduce me to the others later, you seem to get along with a few of them pretty well. What were their names again…Yuma, Kotaki and Ryusei?”

Taiga chuckled on his try to distract him from all his problems with Ueda, but he nodded anyways and promised him to introduce them properly, they were good guys after all.

“Why not, it’s not like you have your own shower you can use!” Fuma was heard suddenly and the boys stopped their conversation turning towards Fuma and Kento.

“I’ll go later. Sorry I will leave first!” Kento apologized and rushed passed Fuma not giving him the chance to say something else.

“What is wrong with this boy?” Fuma asked annoyed as he stopped next to them, but they just shrugged their shoulders.

“Maybe he is just shy.” Kochi said with a chuckle as he stepped next to them. “As I said he is normally taking his showers at night.”

“Who knows what else he is doing at night when he is awake all the time.” Juri said with a smirk as he joined the group. “Maybe he is leaving the club to go to some you know what places.”

“Juri your fantasy is way too filthy.” Kochi replied shaking his head.

“Hey, everything is possible.”

“It is also possible that you have just a too boring life to mind your own business!” Tegoshi intruded the conversation.

“But he is right, it is really suspicious.” Fuma admitted.

“If it annoys you how about asking him about it instead of assuming the wildest things?” Tegoshi advised them before leaving the room as well. Fuma nodded slowly making a weird face while obviously trying to think of a way to ask Kento about it without him being able to run away again. But the result made the others burst out laughing at him and he gave up for now making Kochi and Juri accompany him now that Kento had run away again.

“Are you also coming?” Taiga asked Kentaro as he aimed for the door as well.

“I will just get my stuff. I’ll join you in a minute.”

Taiga left first and Kentaro walked back to the ring where he had left his towel and his gloves. He remained at the side of the ring for a moment looking at his gloves. It were still the same pair of gloves he had used from the start. Sure they were just light protectors, but they all treasured them somehow. They were already worn out and ripped at a few places, but Kentaro didn’t mind it, because there were a lot of awesome memories connected to them. Now that he wouldn’t have the chance to have special training with Nikaido and even though it was just for a week he realized how much he needed him and not just as a protector.

He cracked a smile before grabbing his towel as well about to walk over to the door as he stopped the moment he realized that he wasn’t alone. Shige was standing next to the closed door. Again he looked at him with the same intense stare and even though it annoyed Kentaro he knew better than argue with him. He didn’t want to have any problems with the Osaka club. He just started moving towards the door and stopped right in front of him.

“You’re early for your club’s training.” Kentaro said with a light smile waiting for him to reply. A weird silence followed and Kentaro felt stupid for speaking to him in the first place, but just passing him would have felt weird, it would have shown him that he was actually kind of afraid without even knowing why. “Okay…then see you around.” Kentaro looked to the ground biting his lip before passing him. Shige didn’t seem annoyed by him, but he didn’t seem to be the type for small talk either. But as Kentaro had almost reached the door Shige reached out for him so sudden that Kentaro froze. He didn’t freeze because of the fact itself that he stopped him, but because of the way he did it. He had approached him from behind and put one arm lose around his shoulder, so that his hand rested next to his collarbone while his other hand wrapped lightly around his upper body. It wasn’t like he was really trying to stop him from moving, but Kentaro felt like he couldn’t breathe anymore for a moment and as he leant down to his ear Kentaro closed his eyes to be sure that he wouldn’t freak.

“You know I like training alone, because most of the others are just a distraction. I choose my company really carefully-“suddenly he tightened his grip around his shoulders, so that his arm almost touched his throat and his other hand wandered down to Kentaro’s hips. “-but when I choose company I’m taking really good care of them.”

This was definitely not what Kentaro had imaged to happen, but on the other hand he couldn’t really read Shige at all from the beginning. But even though he didn’t want to cause any trouble already at the first day he wouldn’t just let him do as he pleased. He slashed away his arms turning around to face him straight on.

“Sorry, but I also choose my company really carefully.” He said while demanding his voice to stay steady. Shige suddenly chuckled, but even though Kentaro saw the smile on his face there was nothing amusing about it. As he made a step towards him Kentaro automatically made one step back.

“Are you afraid?” Shige asked ironically as he took another step forward not taking his eyes off the boy.

“Do I have to be?” Kentaro countered as he didn’t take a step back this time so that Shige was standing right in front of him again.

“That depends…” Shige said in a weird soft voice as he lifted his hand about to touch Kentaro’s cheek, but the boy grabbed his wrist before his fingers touched his skin. This was Kentaro’s club, his training room and beyond that door there were enough people to help him. Also the other fighters of the Osaka club were definitely about to enter the room as well in no time so why was Shige risking so much? Kentaro couldn’t understand his behavior at all. They had just met the evening before and Shige had never been at their club, he was new in the fight clubs as well, so how come he would try to break one of their strictest rules right from the beginning?

Kentaro had not taken his eyes off him, but he had stared at him kind of absentminded so that he flinched when Shige suddenly moved forward and put his hand to Kentaro’s cheek ignoring the grip on his wrist which seemed like the one of a small kid compared to his strength. Shige had crossed the distance before Kentaro could even start struggling. He had let out a small scream before Shige forced his lips on his holding him in place with one hand around his cheek and chin and the other one in his hair. No that was definitely not what he had expected to happen and because he also didn’t want it to happen he finally ripped himself out of the other one’s grip or at least he tried. He knew that Shige was stronger so even though he had succeeded in turning his face away the latter was still holding on to him violently, but as he was about to panic not knowing what would happen if he would really start a fight with him now the door opened. Kentaro looked over his shoulder panicked and his eyes met the confused look of Kitayama who stopped in the door for a moment blinking at them in confusion. But through the fact that Shige was still not letting go off Kentaro and that the boy’s expression was more than terrified he finally dashed forward.

“What do you think you are doing?” Kitayama yelled at him stepping between them and luckily Shige just let go without trying to attack Kitayama.

“Sorry, I guess I have taken it too far.” He said with such an obviously played apologizing look that Kentaro would have liked to punch him, but Kitayama turned him around and pushed him towards the door.

“Be sure to stay away from our fighters from now on or I might lose it next time!” Kitayama warned him with such a dangerous glare that Kentaro was surprised by him again. Sure Kitayama had saved his life before and he told him that he would be there for him if he needed him, but his reaction was similar to the one Nikaido would normally show if someone approached Kentaro like that, even though he had just seen half of it.

As they left the training room a few of the Osaka club fighters were already on their way to the training room, but Kentaro wasn’t really in the mood to talk to them right now and luckily Kitayama seemed to feel the same as he dragged him into a corridor towards the opposite side.

“Are you alright?” He asked as the finally stopped walking when they reached their private floor with their rooms. Kitayama had walked down the corridor with Kentaro in silence for a moment before he turned towards the boy who hugged himself and had turned pale.

“I guess…I don’t know.” He ran with his hands through his hair letting out a sigh. “I just didn’t expect this to happen.”

“What exactly did he do?”

Kentaro looked up at Kitayama on the direct question, but sure Kitayama had entered the room as Shige was “just” holding on to him. He had sensed that something was wrong, but he hadn't seen what had happened before.

“He just…he came a little bit too close, nothing more. Sorry to worry you! Thank you for your help.” Kentaro bowed lightly as he wanted to pass Kitayama to get to his room, but the latter stopped him. Kentaro never liked it to speak about stuff like this. Nikaido had never made him speak about what had happened that one night in the shower room after their fight about this topic and even though Shige didn’t really go that far it made him feel the same insecurity again and it seemed like Kitayama had noticed that.

“Hey I told you before already, if you need someone to speak to, I’m here.” He looked at him with a light smile, but Kentaro didn’t dare to face him, because he knew that if he did he would give in and shatter and he didn’t want to. Not here, not now. The tournament was coming up and everyone had their own problems. He had to deal with his problems alone this time if he wanted to or not.

“I’m fine, thank you.” Kentaro looked up at him forming a smile as convincing as possible, but Kitayama didn’t return his smile, but pulled him in a hug instead.

“You are a terrible liar!” He said in a soothing voice as he stroke over his hair. That was it. Kentaro buried his face on Kitayama’s shoulder and grabbed his shirt on his back. Maybe it was because Kitayama wasn’t as emotional connected to him as Nikaido was, but somehow he felt like he could let out his emotions easier with him than with Nikaido. Telling Nikaido would turn out in a huge fight with Shige and that was exactly what Kentaro wanted to prevent and when Kitayama willingly offered to take care of him he wouldn’t say no.

Kitayama continued stroking over the boy’s hair whispering comforting words next to his ear while waiting for Kentaro to calm down. But while almost everything showed how carrying he was there was this smile on his lips which Kentaro couldn’t see showing something different.


	8. Chapter 8

 

 

Ueda passed around another corner as he wanted to just get to his room and ignore everyone for the rest of the day. But he ran into someone as he didn't spend any attention to his surroundings still too bothered with his own anger. The other person stopped him on the shoulders so they wouldn't clash completely.

"Careful or are you trying to get rid of me by running over me?" The other person said teasing and Ueda's mood got even worse as he looked up at no other than Nishikido.

"What the hack are you doing here?" Ueda growled angrily slashing his hands away from his shoulders.

"As you can see I'm walking down the corridor or at least I did until you stopped me."

Ueda lifted an eyebrow at him dangerously and the latter chuckled raising his hands in apology.

"I'm on the way to the training room," He replied serious this time.

Ueda didn't reply anything on that, because of course he had known that, but his anger made him ask stupid questions. He passed the latter with an angry growl hitting with his own shoulder against his on purpose, but looked over his shoulder in surprise as Nishikido had turned around and grabbed his arm to stop him.

"What?" He asked annoyed, but he could see that Nishikido didn't try to start a fight.

"Don't you think it's time to let the old times rest?" He asked suddenly making Ueda turn back to him completely. "I mean we were both new in the clubs back then and sure our fights were not what you could tell the norm, but we never fought unfair, we never did something bad, did we?"

Ueda stayed silent on his words wondering if what had happened in the east club before with Tamamori and the others had made him change his view. There was no good reason to keep fighting outside the ring, especially when they would just meet at tournaments and honestly Ueda couldn’t even remember why they hated each other so much in the first place. Sure they had tried to rip each other apart in the ring, but they were members in a fight club after all, people were hurt badly and even died sometimes.

"I just think that now that we are both trainers we should focus on the people around us instead on this competitive tension between us."

Ueda looked to the ground before taking a deep breath looking up at him again giving him a short nod and as Nishikido gave him a slight smile in return he finally turned around again. As he walked up the stairs to his room he felt already more relaxed, kind of lighter. Now he was angry at himself for signaling Taiga to not come to his room for the night.

***

Kentaro had lied down on his bed right after Kitayama had left him alone telling him that he could come to him anytime if he needed someone to talk. He had one arm over his eyes breathing in deep while trying to make any sense out of Shige's sudden approach. Because the problem was that Kentaro hadn't seen a single sign in the latter's eyes which would have shown any interest in that way, so why did he kiss him? It sounded stupid to himself, but he felt like he had forced himself to do it. A knock on the door ripped him out of his thoughts though.

"Kentaro, are you there?" On the sound of Taiga's voice he got up and opened the door immediately, but before he could even take a proper look at everyone who was standing in front of his door, Taiga pushed him back inside making the others following him and then the door fell shut and a moment of silence followed.

"Ehm, what the hell is going on?" Kentaro asked confused as he looked into the amused faces of Juri and Kochi and then looked up at the two which were standing at the door one of them with his ear pressed against it.

"Okay I guess no one saw us." He finally announced giving the other one a high five.

"I said I would introduce them properly to you, right?" Taiga explained as Kotaki and Ryusei sat down on the ground with everyone, because there was just one chair and the bed to sit in the small room and Kochi had occupied the chair already while Juri had spread over the bed leaving no place for anyone else to sit.

"But now? Don't you have training?" He asked the two directly and they gave him a kind of guilty look.

"We are good at skipping. Except for Yuma, he would never skip." Kotaki said smiling. "But anyways sorry for intruding your room like this. We know that we are normally not allowed here."

"Don’t worry, I don't mind." Kentaro replied with a smile.

"By the way, where were you? You said you would come after us in a minute earlier!"

"Oh, I just...bumped into Kitayama earlier and we talked a while. Sorry I had totally forgotten that you were waiting." Kentaro said apologizing and while the others seemed okay with his lie Taiga looked at him sceptic.

"Anyways. Kotaki, Ryusei this is Kentaro he is in the club since last year and Kochi and Juri followed a few months later." Kentaro bowed lightly at the two while Kochi just nodded with a smile and Juri sat up as Taiga introduced him.

"Those two are Kotaki and Ryusei. They are in the Osaka club for a long time already, we met on two tournaments already."

Kotaki smiled at everyone while Ryusei just nodded with crossed arms in front of his chest not even paying full attention. But then he got a slap on the back of his head from the younger one making him yelp.

"You have to excuse him, he is a really nice guy, but really careful when it's about meeting new people." Kotaki apologized ignoring Ryusei's side glance. For a while they talked about random stuff, laughing and having fun. It was a rare opportunity to talk to other fight club members like this, especially a few days before a tournament, but Kentaro was more than happy about the calm distraction.

"So how is Ueda? He seemed really shocked as he saw Nishikido." Ryusei asked Taiga who nodded.

"I guess he is really about to explode. But he can hold his anger down until the tournament is over, I hope at least."

"And he has you, so everything is alright!" Kotaki said smiling clapping Taiga comforting on the shoulder. "By the way does anyone else of you have a protector? Just so we know who to be careful of, not that we would do something stupid, but just in case."

Kotaki looked up at Juri and Kochi first, but they shook their heads looking at each other with a weird smile.

"What is it?" Kotaki asked a little bit scared by their reaction, but then they pointed down at Kentaro.

"Ask him!" Juri said and Kentaro sighed before looking at him over his shoulder.

"It's not like it is such a big deal!"

"No not to us, at least not anymore anymore, but trust me they might run out the room the moment you tell them."

"Don't tell me..." Ryusei started looking at Kentaro almost panicked, but before Kentaro could answer the door suddenly opened and Kotaki cursed because he had forgotten to lock it.

"I can tell you if you want!" Nikaido said in a cold voice, leaning against the door frame while looking at the boys, which had jumped up right away. Kentaro had to smile as Kotaki hid behind Ryusei and Taiga after he realized that he was the one closest to the door and was standing right in front of Nikaido.

"Calm down he won't rip you to pieces." Kentaro told them with a light smile as he walked over to him.

“What makes you so sure of that?” Nikaido asked and even though his voice was teasing there was this tension on his face again which Kentaro had recognized at the training earlier already. “By the way I heard a really angry Nishikido shouting earlier in the training room how about you do yourself the favor and attend the training at least from now on before he’ll freak completely?”

Nikaido stepped inside the room making way for the two Osaka club members. They gave Kentaro and the others and apologizing look before excusing themselves. Kotaki tried to hide behind Ryusei as they walked out the door, so that he didn’t have to pass Nikaido directly, but Ryusei shoved him away scolding him for his scared behavior.

“Those two are really funny, I like them.” Juri announced as they had left the room.

“I told you that they are not that bad. When we met them at the bar it was just a bad timing for all of us.” Taiga explained. “Anyways, I guess we should also leave for now.” Taiga continued as he saw that Nikaido wasn’t really making a move to leave the room. Juri and Kochi approved right away excusing themselves for now before closing the door leaving Kentaro and Nikaido alone.

“They just arrived and everything is already turning upside down.” Nikaido said while shaking his head.

“It’s not like we would have taken our rules that serious until now, you know.” Kentaro said kind of scolding, but as Nikaido didn’t give him an answer still remaining next to the door leaning against the wall kind of absent minded he stepped closer. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, all good.” He said not even convincing himself.

“Why were you in front of my room anyway?” Kentaro asked as he realized that normally Nikaido wouldn’t come over to his room like this without a warning, especially not with another fight club around.

“No special reason, I just wanted to take a look…”

“Don’t tell me you came because you saw me with Kitayama?” Kentaro asked as anger rose in him as he tried to make sense out of Nikaido’s actions.

“What? Kitayama was with you? When?” Nikaido asked totally perplex and Kentaro cursed in silence as he realized that it hadn’t been the reason after all.

“Sorry, forget it. Never mind.”

“Did something happen?” Nikaido asked worried, but Kentaro shook his head. He didn’t want to tell him, not before the tournament was over. Sure he knew that he would make him more than angry again when he would keep lying to him, but they needed to concentrate and his personal problems would need to be second for now.

“No. As I said, never mind.” Kentaro shifted uncomfortable not sure if he would be able to make Nikaido stop asking for now.

“Okay fine.” Nikaido said to his surprise, but his look told him that he knew that something was going on. “Just tell me if you need help, I’m your protector after all.”

Kentaro nodded and even though he felt more than bad about lying to him again he tried to form a smile. Nikaido just sighed and stepped away from the wall aiming for the door, but without any kind of warning he lost balance and if Kentaro wouldn’t have been fast enough to help him stand he would have definitely fallen over.

“Everything alright?” Kentaro asked alarmed after Nikaido had acted all weird for the whole day already.

“Yes don’t worry. All good.”

“Now you’re the one who’s lying.” Kentaro replied as he finally understood what was going on now that he held on to Nikaido and felt that he was shaking. He moved his hand to his forehead and as expected he had a high fever. “Idiot! Why didn’t you say from the beginning that you weren’t feeling good?”

“It’s not like it would be so much of a deal, it’s just a cold.”

“Yeah sure as long as you rest, but you idiot had to act all tough in front of the other club and even attend training like this!”

“Could you stop insulting me for now?”

“Just if you stop giving me reasons to do so.”

For a moment they just stared at each other before Nikaido escaped the first chuckle. Kentaro smirked back at him before helping him to sit down on his bed. He felt so stupid for not realizing earlier how bad Nikaido was feeling and that he didn’t realize that the only reason why he had come over to his room was because he didn’t want to be alone, not that he would ever actually admit that. After all the happenings they had to face over the last weeks Kentaro was happy to be able to help Nikaido this time even though it sounded kind of weird. Of course Kentaro knew why Nikaido hadn’t said something earlier or didn’t went to the doc directly, because even though he had accused him of acting all tough in front of the other club this is exactly what he needed to do. Showing weakness before a tournament would make their fighters feel insecure as well. So in the end Kentaro told him to wait in his room until he got back with a few medications and a small bucket with cold water from the med room in which he had sneaked in, luckily unnoticed.

“Would you lie down?” Kentaro scolded Nikaido the moment he entered his room again seeing that he was still sitting on his bed the same way he had left him.

“I’m not feeling that bad you know.”

“Sure, just bad enough to stumble over you own feet and if you do the same at the tournament you won’t last more than two seconds in your fight.”

Kentaro put the medication on the table and took some of them together with a glass of water handing it to Nikaido. He took it without any complains, but as Kentaro put a small towel into the cold water and moved over to the bed with it Nikaido looked up at him kind of annoyed.

“What?” Kentaro asked confused waiting for Nikaido to finally lie down, but he still refused.

“I appreciate your concern, but this is really more than unnecessary.”

“Would you put your stupid pride aside for once?” Kentaro growled annoyed, but of course Nikaido wouldn’t just give in that easily, so in the end he just grabbed Nikaido by the shoulders and pushed him down to the bed and even though he took him by surprise and had to crawl on top of him so that he would be able to really push him down, the fact alone that he managed to do it made clear that Nikaido felt worse than he admitted. Nikaido growled dangerously on the triumphing smile which spread over Kentaro’s face, but in return Kentaro let the towel drop on Nikaido’s face.

“Don’t complain! The more I have to take care of you the bigger is the chance that I infect myself. So if you don’t want to see me losing my fight thanks to your cold you should just do as I say and rest for now! And let’s not forget that you were the one coming to me!”

“Says who? I told you I just came by to take a look.”

Kentaro just rolled his eyes at him before getting off him, but as he tried to move away from the bed Nikaido grabbed him by the wrist making him turn around again. But instead of saying anything he just looked at him for a brief moment before letting go of him and turning to his side facing the wall. Kentaro gave him a smile before he moved over to the door.

“I’ll sneak inside the med room once more as long as the others have training. When I remember correctly there was a futon somewhere.” Kentaro said as he had opened the door already.

“Thank you.”

Kentaro turned around once more, but of course Nikaido hadn’t turned back to him. It was hard enough for him to say something like this even while not facing him. He wondered if he would be able to break down this huge wall around Nikaido someday, because even so he always tried to excuse his behavior on his pride he knew that there was more to it. Something he tried to hide from.

“Idiot!” He whispered before leaving the room.

***

Luckily Kentaro was able to convince Nikaido to be allowed to tell at least Ueda, Senga and Taiga about his bad condition the next morning so Ueda made up an excuse why Nikaido couldn’t attend the training. And even though Nikaido’s fever had been a little bit better in the morning Kentaro felt more than restless through the whole training not wanting to leave Nikaido alone longer than necessarily.

“You know that he is not a kid right? He will yell at you if you get too over-protective. He is your protector not the other way around.” Taiga warned him as Kentaro shifted uncomfortably while looking towards the door all the time. Training had just begun and they were still sitting in the warming up area.

“I know. He told me the same yesterday, but still. With the other club around it just feels weird to leave him alone especially after he had come to me, because he was feeling that bad.”

“So that was the reason why he showed up at your room yesterday?” Taiga asked in a lower voice pulling Kentaro closer so that no one else would hear them.

“Yes, but he won’t admit it of course. But I feel stupid for suspecting that he was suspicious about Kitayama again.”

“What, why Kitayama?”

“Never mind, forget it.” Kentaro tried to shrug it off with a smile before trying to get up, but Taiga pulled him down again.

“Kentaro what happened? I can see that you are lying. Was that the reason why you didn't come after us yesterday?” Taiga scolded him, but Kentaro didn’t want to bother any of them with his problems at least not for now and he started to get annoyed by all the questioning, because if he would have mentioned another name than Kitayama's no one would even ask.

“Everything is alright!”

“Did you tell Nikaido?”

“Taiga I said everything is all right!”

“And I say you’re a terrible lair!”

Kentaro flicked his tongue turning away from Taiga, but it was obvious that the boy wouldn’t want to let him off like this as he tried to turn him around again.

“Would you leave me alone?” Kentaro hissed at his friend angrier than he wanted, because truth was that he would love to tell him, but he knew better. At least for once he had to carry a burden alone and at least Kitayama knew, so he had someone he could rely on with this problem.

“No I won’t, until you stop lying to me!” Taiga shot back trying to get a hold on Kentaro as he got up and tried to get away from him.

“Then stop lying to yourself first!” Kentaro shouted before he could stop himself. “How about you go and solve your own problems before worrying about other people’s problems. You are the biggest liar here so stop pretending that you are all that carrying while you’re running away from your own problems!”

Taiga had fallen completely silent on Kentaro’s outburst and was staring at him with a kind of disbelieving look. Kentaro needed a moment to realize what he had said, but the damage had already been done. Of course the others had heard them after Kentaro had risen his voice and most of them were staring at them now, but Kentaro couldn’t care less at the moment. He took a step forward wanting to take Taiga’s arm, but he pulled away.

“Taiga, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to say this.” Kentaro tried to apologize in a shaking voice, but Taiga just shook his head facing the ground for a moment.

“Everything alright?” Juri asked carefully as he was the first to approach them, but before Kentaro could even talk to him Taiga dashed through the room and out the door not even reacting to Ueda shouting after him. Kentaro wanted to run after him, but Tegoshi stopped him.

“Give him some space.” He said trying to form a smile, but it wasn’t as convincing as he wanted it to be.

“I can’t leave him alone now!” Kentaro tried to discuss, but who was he kidding? He wouldn’t want to talk to him now anyways.

“Kochi would you take a look at him? I don’t think he wants to talk to anyone, but just make sure that he is alright, okay?” Tegoshi asked the boy and he understood right away leaving the room to search for Taiga. Kochi was the calmest of them, so if someone could calm Taiga down than it would be him. Kentaro looked up at Ueda, but their trainer seemed kind of absentminded through Taiga's reaction.

“Hey, don’t worry too much, okay? We all have our problems and our ways to deal with it!” Juri said with a smile, but it wasn’t really helping, because yes they all had their own ways, but was he allowed to judge Taiga while he himself was trying to run away from his problems as well?

“Don’t space out! We still have training and if you have forgotten the tournament is just a few days away so how about you start to concentrate on that for now?” Senga suddenly interfered making everyone go back to their training. It was obvious that Senga felt restless as well, but he was right they could deal with their problems later. Kentaro walked over to one of the punching bags as a hand landed on his shoulder.

“Are you alight?” Kitayama asked in a low voice before walking behind the bag to hold it for Kentaro. This time he didn’t get angry at the question. At the moment Kitayama was the only one who knew that Kentaro was struggling with something and it felt good to have someone to talk who seemed to be one of the few people not having their own problems to deal with.

“Thank you, I’m fine.” Kentaro answered before putting on his gloves and throwing the first punches at the bag. His punches were perfectly aimed and making clear that he didn’t allow himself to get his problems in between him and his concertation.

“Okay, then let me see what you got!” Kitayama replied with a smile hitting the bag with his palm before taking a good hold of it and Kentaro couldn’t keep from smiling. Because Kitayama was the first one who didn’t mind that Kentaro was lying. The only one who let him do as he pleased for now and like this Kentaro could finally concentrate on his training again. Of course his problems wouldn’t be gone like this, he was still struggling inside with Shige’s weird behavior, Nikaido’s fever and his outburst on Taiga, but now he could use all those struggles and put them into action finally.


	9. Chapter 9

 

Ueda had totally lost track of time as he still hadn’t ended the training as Nishikido stepped inside with his fighters. Luckily the other one ignored him and all of them waited patiently until the other fighters had left the room. While Juri had greeted Kotaki and Ryusei right away which introduced Yuma, Kamiyama and Hamada to them, Ueda had realized that Kentaro had tensed the moment they had stepped in and as Kitayama put his arm around his shoulder walking out the room with him he was even more confused, but he had his own problems to deal with for now. He had walked over to Taiga’s room finding Kochi sitting on the floor leaning against the wall. Taiga hadn’t come out once since the training Kochi had told him and Ueda thanked him for watching over him before dismissing him. Since then he was standing in front of the door not sure what to do. If he would enter he didn’t know what would happen next. Kentaro’s words had been harsh, but true and of course Ueda knew that he was part of this story. He sighed deeply leaning against the doorframe as the door suddenly opened.

“Are you going to stay there the whole day?” Taiga asked in a raspy voice making it clear that he had cried, but no tears were shining in his eyes now as he held the door open for Ueda to enter.

They both stayed silent for a moment sitting down on the bed, Taiga with his knees folded to his chest and Ueda leaning forward not daring to face him.

“Are you alright?” Ueda finally asked regretting his question right away as Taiga replied with a sarcastic chuckle. “Sorry, stupid question.”

“How’s Kentaro?”

“What?” Ueda finally dared to look up at him, but Taiga’s face was a mask giving him no chance to read his emotions. “Is this really the time to ask about others?”

“I just feel guilty, because I left like this. It’s not like he did something bad, he just said the truth and I don’t want him to feel guilty because of it.”

“And that is exactly the problem!” Ueda said with a hint of anger in his voice making Taiga’s mask crumble a little bit.

“What do you mean?” The boy asked neutral even though it was obvious that he was getting mad through Ueda’s reaction.

“You always care for everyone else’s problems and forget that you have your own as well. How about you take care of yourself first for once in a while?”

Taiga escaped a disbelieving chuckle on that, but Ueda just raised an eyebrow at him.

 “Says the one who wants me to listen to his problems as payment!”

“So now it’s my fault that you’re not taking enough care of yourself or what?”

“You know, yes it is actually, because even though you make me listen to your problems you keep the important ones hidden from me!” Taiga shot back before throwing his pillow at Ueda, but the latter just caught it and threw it to the ground before getting up.

“Oh and you think I keep stuff hidden from you because I like it?”

“Maybe you do it, because you like to hurt yourself or maybe because you are just too blind to see that you are hurting others with it, but I can just guess, because you are not telling me!” Taiga shouted at him now getting to his feet as well as his mask fell completely.

“I do it to protect you!” Ueda countered, but Taiga shook his head not believing one word he said.

“Protect me from what, you?” Taiga asked kind of hurt making Ueda speechless for a moment. “Or are you protecting yourself? You think I can’t handle it? Do you really think I would be so stupid and let this happen if I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that I want this?” Tears of anger were filling his eyes, but he refused to take his eyes off Ueda, but the latter could just stare at him with his thoughts racing. Sure he wasn’t that blind, he had always seen the signs, always knew about Taiga waiting for him to make a move and yes maybe Taiga was right, maybe he stopped himself to protect not just Taiga, but himself.

“We should talk about this when you have calmed down!” Ueda said without even wanting to, but he fought against his own wish to just take action, because the fear of destroying everything was making him hold back.

“If you walk out this door now then there is nothing left to speak about anymore.” Taiga said in such a hurt voice that it made Ueda freeze to the spot.

“Please Taiga let’s talk about this after the tournament again, okay?” Ueda felt how he was losing his own battle, so as always he tried to run away and play for time.

“Talk about it?” Taiga suddenly shouted pushing Ueda with so much force that he had to take a step backwards. “I'M DONE TALKING! I was waiting for you to finally talk and I’m not willing to wait a single second longer!”

“Taiga, please-“

“NO! I’m done with your excuses!” Taiga tried to push him backwards again, but this time Ueda grabbed his arms stopping him. Ueda just stared at him as the first tears ran down the boy’s cheek and sobs replaced his angry shouting. He didn’t even try to struggle against Ueda’s grip or to hide how hurt he was. “Please, don’t do this to me any longer!” He begged before his voice broke and seeing how Taiga was so hurt by his behavior he finally lost the battle. He wasn’t sure if he would regret it later or if Taiga would hate him for it, but for now, just for this one time he didn’t want to care anymore. He moved his hands to the boy’s hair and crushed their lips together without giving it a second thought anymore. Taiga didn’t struggle which was no surprise to Ueda at all. He even put his arms around the older one’s neck not giving him the chance to back off.

The problem was that Taiga was still crying and if he wanted to or not he had to back off after a moment, but he didn’t allow Ueda to make even a single step backwards. He just gave himself a few seconds to breath before closing the gap between their lips again. Ueda pushed him backwards until his back hit the wall and even though he hesitated a little bit at first, he finally dared to deepen the kiss as his tongue moved over the younger one’s lips and of course he parted them willingly. It didn’t take long for Taiga to move his hands away from Ueda’s neck down to his shirt, but before he was able to even touch his skin Ueda suddenly backed off taking his hands away. He stayed close to the boy, but didn’t dare to kiss him again.

“Let’s stop here for now, okay?” He whispered against Taiga’s lips and moved back a little bit as Taiga wanted to kiss him again.

“I don’t want to.”

“Please Taiga, this is all I can give you for now.”

Taiga nodded slowly putting his head against the older one’s shoulder. Ueda let go of his hands and put his arms around the boy resting his chin on his hair.

“Thank you.” Taiga whispered against his shoulder, but Ueda wasn’t sure if this was really something he should be thanked for. But for now he didn’t want to think about it. Just for once he wanted to act the way he felt regardless the consequences which could follow.

***

The day had passed fast and even though there was a lot of chaos going on and the tournament was right ahead there was something that bothered Fuma enough to make him stay awake until late at night. He leant with his back at the wall around the corner of the shower room and he was almost about to fall asleep even while standing as he finally heard someone enter it. He waited a few minutes longer before he entered the room as well finding the one he was looking for. Kento had his back turned towards him as he had already entered the shower he couldn’t see Fuma’s horrified look as he finally understood the reason why the boy was hiding all the time. There were burn scars all over his back searching its way deep into his skin. As Fuma looked at the clothes which Kento had thrown onto the small table he could see that there were used and new bandaged lying there together with something that looked like a tube with medical gel. Before he could stop himself he stepped inside the shower room not even bothering taking off his clothes. The moment he stopped behind Kento, the latter finally realized that he wasn’t alone and swirled around, looking at Fuma with a panicked look.

“What- what are you doing here?” He asked in a shaking voice trying to press himself against the wall as if he could hide the scars like this. As Fuma didn’t answer and just kept staring with his fists clenched as if he tried to calm down and not shout at the boy, Kento tried to pass him, but he was stopped by Fuma’s arms wrapping around him from behind before he was able to leave the shower room.

“Idiot! You don’t have to hide because of something like this!”

Kento didn’t reply, instead he grabbed Fuma’s arms. For a moment they remind silent not even bothering to turn off the shower which had soaked Fuma’s clothes completely by now.

“It’s not the scars themselves I’m trying to hide, but the memories connected to them.” Kento explained after a moment. “When people see them they always ask how I got them and this is a part of my past I don’t want to remember. I’m too ashamed to remember…” Kento’s voice was about to break and as he tried to loosen Fuma's grip he thought he would push him away, but he turned around his arms hugging him back. Fuma stroke over his hair trying to calm him down.

“Hey, if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine with me and don’t worry I won’t tell the others, but you know as your protector I just don’t like it when you keep secrets from me!”

Kento tugged his fingers deeper into the fabric of Fuma’s shirt and the latter just waited patiently for him to calm down. They all had their own burden to carry and their own past which was haunting them.

“I’ll tell you, promise. But at another time, okay?” Kento whispered as he had calmed down, but failed in hiding his sobs in his voice. Fuma kissed him on the hair pulling him even tighter into the hug.

“Whenever you are ready I’ll be there to listen.”

“Thank you.”

***

“What? No!” Ueda answered as if the question itself had been a joke already and who would blame him. There were just two more days left before the tournament and out of the blue the younger once tried to convince him that they wanted to go out for the evening to a club.

“Oh come on, it is not like we would do something stupid!” Juri tried to convince him.

“Is Fuma coming with you?”

“I guess so.”

“Then no!”

“Hey!” Fuma butted into their conversation, but had not really any good arguments to make Ueda change his mind.

“Oh come on we already spoke to Kotaki and the others yesterday. It will be fine!” Kochi tried his luck this time, but Ueda still didn’t seem fond of the idea.

Before Ueda could start arguing again Nishikido came inside with his fighters and to his surprise the picture in front of him made him smirk as Kotaki and Hamada were jumping around him trying to convince him as well to let them go.

“Oh god I think he lost it.” Juri said almost shocked on Ueda’s amused face, but as Nishikido finally looked at him he turned away hawking before slapping Juri on the back of his head. “Hey what did I do?”

“Being an idiot like always.”

“Hey Ueda do you have a moment?” Nishikido asked to everyone’s surprise as he finally stopped the younger ones from almost falling on their knees in front of him just to be allowed to go.

“Sure.” Ueda walked over to the ring with him, talking for a moment while the others were left speechless behind.

“Okay sorry, but is it just me or is something really weird going on here?” Fuma asked confused.

“What do you mean? Nikaido not showing up for the training before the tournament, Ueda and Taiga acting completely weird since the morning, Kentaro getting pissed at everyone and just sticking to Kitayama or Nishikido and Ueda speaking to each other without ripping each other apart?” Kochi asked making everyone turn towards him. “What?”

“Don’t you get a headache from analyzing everyone and everything the whole time?” Kento asked kind of amused.

“Hey analyzing is quite helpful. Like this I know stuff like that we don’t have to worry about you that much anymore, because Fuma seems to take enough care of you.” Kochi replied with a smirk turning Kento speechless for a moment. But before he could think about it too much and drown in bad thoughts Fuma threw his arm around his shoulder.

“Don’t analyze us too much or we will drive you insane.” Fuma said in a played warning voice making the other giggle.

“Trust me no one can give me a bigger headache than Kentaro and Nikaido! Except Taiga and Ueda at the moment maybe.” Kochi replied, but fell silent as Ueda and Nishikido walked up to them again.

“Okay so Kotaki, Ryusei, Yuma, Hamada and Hirano want to go if I got this right?” Ryo asked his club members.

“Don’t forget Kami-chan!” Hamada said grinning as he threw his arm around the smaller one who hit him with the elbow into the ribs.

“Who said I want to go?”

“I did just now!” Hamada replied and Kamiyama just rolled his eyes, but didn’t really object.

“And we have Juri, Kochi, Fuma and Kento?” Ueda asked this time and the boys exchanged a questioning look and Ueda knew of course what that meant and before this would end in a huge discussion he turned around to the only ones which were still training, ignoring what was happening around them.

“Taiga! Kentaro! Would you come here for a moment?” Ueda asked them and the boys which had trained separately the whole morning looked at each other with a guilty look before walking up to him.

“You want to go as well?” Ueda asked, but of course none of them answered. But then Fuma jumped forward grabbing them one with the left and one with the right arm almost cutting their air as he closed his arms around their throats.

“Of course they want to go or do you here any objection?” Fuma asked laughing and as a faint smile was visible on the boys' lips Ueda felt at least a little bit relieved. Maybe it was really good for them to get out for some time again and especially for Taiga to think about something else and to talk to Kentaro again.

“Fine you can all go!” Nishikido announced to everyone’s surprise and everyone was already cheering and jumping around giving each other high fives.

“But there is one condition!” Ueda said ruining the mood immediately.

“That doesn’t sound good at all!” Kotaki said scared.

“Shige and Senga are also going!” Ueda announced making everyone’s jaws drop.

“What? Why?” Juri asked in a sulky voice, but it was clear that the two trainers wouldn’t change their mind.

“Seriously, we don’t need babysitters!” Fuma hissed annoyed crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Right you would need at least three, all of them with military training to stop you from doing stupid things!” Kochi replied teasing.

“But is this really necessary? It’s not like they want to go, right?” Ryusei asked while Kotaki and the others nodded.

“You want me to send Koyama with you instead?”

“NO!” All of the Osaka members answered at once making the Tokyo members laugh.

“What’s so bad about Koyama? He seems really nice and calm!” Kochi asked curious.

“Trust me calm is the wrong word, especially when you are in a club with him! If you hang out with him the whole night he will drive you insane through his state of apparent death!” Yuma explained making most of the others blink at him.

“He is not kidding! He stares through the club without any kind of emotion and he is not moving, not drinking, he is barely breathing!” Hirano explained.

“But he will definitely tell you afterwards how much fun it was!” Ryusei added making the others giggle.

“Anyways, you just have those two choices! Deal with them coming with you or don’t go!” Ueda announced once more and of course they all agreed. So for now they had to get the Osaka members to do their training first before they would all leave in the evening, but that was of course not easy with the younger ones being that hyper.

“Okay everyone who doesn’t speak Osaka-ben leaves the room now!” Ueda announced suddenly and before anyone could say something Nishikido hit him on the shoulder.

“You are just jealous that you can’t do it!” He said in an extra clear pronounced Osaka-ben.

“And you are seriously proud of that weird stuff?” Ueda asked sarcastic before walking over to the door, but instead of looking pissed as usual when he was talking to him he looked kind of neutral, not amused, that would be too much, but at least kind of okay with talking with him.

“Kochi, what does you analyzer says to this?” Juri asked his friend, but hi friend just shrugged shoulders.

“Out of service is all I get out of them at the moment.”

***

Kentaro went back to his room for now after they all had split up after the training. He knew that he really needed to talk to Taiga later and apologize, but he figured that it would be easier to do so when they were out of the club.

“Hey how are you-“ Kentaro started as he opened the door, but Nikaido wasn’t there anymore. “Idiot!”

Kentaro turned around right away walking towards the stairs towards Nikaido’s room. He was more than sure that he was still not feeling completely fine again after he still had a light fever in the morning as Kentaro left for the training, but as he knew him he wanted to play it down again.

“Hey, are you searching for someone?” On the sound of Kitayama’s voice Kentaro turned around and the older one approached him with a smile ruffling through his hair.

“No not really, I was just walking around.” Kentaro would have liked to slap himself for this stupid lie, but even though he trusted Kitayama he didn’t want to make his and Nikaido’s relationship even more obvious even though Kitayama had already made clear that he knew about them.

“I just heard from the others that you are going out in the evening?”

“Yes, the others wanted to go somewhere with the Osaka members. I didn’t really want to join in that much, but with everyone else going I couldn’t say no.”

“But will you be alright?”

“What do you mean?”

“Shige is coming as well, right?”

Now Kentaro felt more than stupid for not realizing this important fact earlier. Even though they had said so before he had totally ignored it.

“Oh right…it will be alright, I hope.” Kentaro tried to convince him, but he started to shift uncomfortably.

“Hey don’t worry it will be alright, I’m here for you if you need someone!” Kitayama said with a smile as he reached out to put his hand on Kentaro’s hair, but it was stopped before it reached him.

“He will be alright even when you are not there, because I’m here!” Nikaido said angry as he held on to Kitayama’s wrist with more force than necessary. But the latter just smiled back at him instead of getting angry.

“Sure you are his protector, I would never doubt that you can protect him the best. You would always come to his rescue, right?” He asked with a weird smile before he took Nikaido’s arm to make him let go of him. As he excused himself and walked away a weird silence followed.

“What was that?” Nikaido suddenly asked as he turned towards Kentaro.

“What do you mean?”

“Since when are you two meeting for small talk next to his room?”

“What?” Kentaro hadn’t even realized that Kitayama’s room was close by, but the more or less positive part of his question was that he didn’t ask about Shige what meant that he hadn’t heard that part of the conversation.

“I was on my way to your room as I met him if your paranoia is satisfied with this information!?” Kentaro shot at him angrier than he wanted, but those days there was just too much going on and he couldn’t deal with anyone always questioning and following all his moves. But to his surprise Nikaido’s face showed nothing angry and he didn’t seem like he wanted to discuss this topic again.

“Are you alright?” Kentaro asked after a moment as it was clear that Nikaido failed in finding something to say to change the topic.

“Yes the fever is as good as gone, I guess I can train in the evening-“

“Tomorrow!”

“What?”

“Don’t even think about training in the evening already! It’s enough if you show up tomorrow at the last training before the tournament! Don’t take this too lightly, okay? Just because you feel almost okay again doesn’t mean that it couldn’t get worse if you overdo it right away.” Kentaro tried hard to not make it sound too scolding as Taiga had warned him before he knew as well that he shouldn’t try to play protector now, but fact was that he was worried. “Oh and by the way we are going to a club this evening, but don’t worry, Senga is also coming, so at least Fuma won’t destroy anything.”

“Yeah right at least not alone, he might destroy something together with Senga. Who the hell had the idea to send him with you?”

“Ueda, who else! But if you prefer we could ask Kitayama instead!” Kentaro asked shrugging his shoulders before receiving a death glare in return. “That was a joke, okay!?” Kentaro was already about to turn away again as Nikaido grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him against the wall. Before Kentaro could complain he had lifted his head up and kissed him. Since the Osaka club had arrived and of course after Nikaido felt like crap for the last days they hadn’t shared a single kiss and especially not such a rushed and lustful one.

“What was that for?” Kentaro asked kind of perplex, but with a playful smile as Nikaido backed off again.

“I just thought I should get my payment again, I don’t get the chance for it so often at the moment.”

“Yeah great, so I gave you payment for lying in my bed with a cold with which you by the way might have even infected me just now.”

“Oh so you want a new payment?” Nikaido asked playful as he leant closer again making it hard for Kentaro to breath.

“Maybe you want another place for your payment at least?”

Kentaro escaped a chuckle as Nikaido growled before looking over to Senga who leant at the wall next to the corner.

“Maybe you want to get lost?” Nikaido shot back, but he backed off automatically knowing that he shouldn’t have kissed him in the middle of the hallway this in the first place, but he was right after all. Kentaro had also waited for some payment opportunity, so he couldn’t really scold Nikaido for getting impatient. But to Kentaro’s surprise Nikaido leant in for another short kiss before backing off completely, stroking over his cheek facing him with a worried smile.

“Don’t do something stupid at the club okay? The tournament is coming up!” Nikaido reminded him before walking over to Senga slapping him on the shoulder.

“Take care of our younger ones!”

“Before someone will attack them they will all make a huge chaos out of the whole club! You know them!” Senga replied with a smile holding out his fist to his friend. “But don’t worry if necessary I’ll protect them with my life!”

“I’m counting on you!” Nikaido replied putting his fist against Senga’s.

“Have I ever let you down?”


	10. Chapter 10

“No Fuma you stay here!” Kento warned his protector after he had had already way too many drinks in a way too short time.

“Why? It’s not like I want to go to the dancefloor to fight with someone!”

“Yeah at least not until someone bumps into you and with your not really existing sense of balance at the moment that would be just a matter of seconds so how about I order you a new drink and you just sit down here?” Kento said pointing at one of the stools at the bar.

“Depends on what drink you are ordering me?”

“Oh you’ll like it, it’s an awesome drink! It’s called water!”

On that Kentaro and Yuma which were standing next to them burst out laughing while Fuma didn’t even get the joke as he was just impatiently waiting for Kento to order anything at all.

“I wonder how many of them will skip the training tomorrow!” Yuma said as he watched most of the others on the dancefloor and even though they were still not as drunk as Fuma they seemed on the best way to it and it would be enough to make them feel horrible by tomorrow. Even Senga got carried away a little bit too much after he had first sat at the bar with Shige who had spent him a drink earlier.

“I guess it would be even better if they rest tomorrow. The tournament is almost there after all.” Kentaro said kind of worried.

“Are you afraid?” Yuma asked with a light smile, but Kentaro shook his head.

“Not afraid, but nervous! It is the first time that we had our opponents around for such a long time and it feels kind of weird to talk to you like this when I have to fights against you in two days!”

“Yeah I know what you mean, it always feels weird. But I won’t show mercy just because we are getting along, you know that right?” Yuma reminded him, but of course Kentaro was aware of that. For a moment he let his eyes wander around the club until his eyes met a direct stare and again he froze. He froze until Fuma waved with his hand in front of his face making him finally lose contact to the other one’s eyes.

“All good? What are you starring at?” Fuma asked, but Kentaro just shook his head waving it off and luckily Fuma was into his drinks more than into conversations so he didn’t mind that he didn’t really answer. It had been Shige of course who was leaning against the wall at the side of the bar looking at him and the moment their eyes had met he felt this insecurity again even though he had all his people with him here and absolutely no reason to feel afraid. As he looked to the other side he saw Taiga sitting alone on a table in the corner and he excused himself in front of Yuma and walked over to him. Sure he wanted to talk to him anyways and it was a good opportunity, but it was even better because like this he could get more distance between him and Shige and could face the wall instead of the room.

“Hey,” was all he could think of to say as he sat down in front of Taiga and to his relief his friend smiled at him. For a moment they didn’t say something, but as Kentaro had spaced out a little bit he felt something cold on his arm and as he looked up at Taiga he was holding out his bottle towards him. With a smile he took it from him taking a sip out of it before putting it back on the table.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-“

“Thank you!” Taiga stopped him before he could end his sentence.

“For what?”

“For finally saying what we were afraid to say ourselves. You don’t have to be sorry! I should be sorry for getting on all your nerves with my problems all the time while trying to ignore them.”

“It’s not like your problem is something that can be solves that easily after all and I should know better than try to tell you how to deal with it.” Kentaro lifted up the bottle once more taking another sip.

“But we solved it, kind of.”

First he had just nodded, but as he realized what his friend had said he almost spill out his drink again coughing trying to get it down his throat. “Wait, what?”  

Taiga smiled at him with a hint of embarrassment on his face.

“But wait that doesn’t make sense. Since this morning you are not even looking at each other, I thought you had a huge fight or something!?”

“It’s just because the tournament is coming up we thought it would be easier for both of us to stay away from each other until it is over. I guess you know yourself how hard it is to hold back when everything has just started.”

“Tell me about it!” Kentaro replied with a knowing look before hitting his friend against the shoulder. “But don’t you dare to back out after the tournament is over!” Kentaro said in a teasing tone, but Taiga understood that even though he said it more or less as a joke his worries had a reason. It wasn’t like he would feel insecure, at least not until now, but it was the first time that he dared to let someone get that close again and especially because it was the person he cared most for, he was afraid that he would do something stupid like running away.

“Don’t worry, there is no way I’m giving up on this chance!” Taiga said convinced and Kentaro gave him an approving nod.

“Hey you two bores are you planning on sitting here the whole night?” Kotaki shouted at them as he threw himself on the chair next to Taiga putting his arm around his shoulder. “Even Senga is partying, so as long as none of our babysitters says we have to go home we should use the opportunity!”

Kentaro turned towards Senga and to his surprise he really seemed to have a lot of fun, not that he would normally not have fun, but usually he wasn’t getting all this hyper and dancing over the dancefloor with Juri and Hamada having to watch out that he wouldn’t pump in too many people.

“Come on let’s join them!” Kotaki pulled on Taiga’s sleeve and the latter let himself get dragged along and as he waved at Kentaro he followed them into the crowd. It wasn’t like he would party that much, especially because, as stupid as it sounded, he couldn’t dance like they did and he wouldn’t start dancing professionally in a club. So in the end he just moved a little bit from one leg to the other looking at his friends in amusement, especially as Kamiyama and Hirano tried desperately to convince the band to play an Osaka song. As he didn’t pay enough attention he bumped with his back into someone, but as he wanted to turn around the person held on to his shoulders so that he couldn’t. As he looked over his shoulder he froze as it was no other than Shige standing behind him and even though he would have loved to push him away he stopped. He wasn’t doing anything that would justify it to get angry now and if he didn’t want the others to get suspicious about him he had to stay calm. He didn’t want to start uproar between the clubs now that they all were having fun. So in the end he just tried to step away again and to his surprise Shige just let go of him, but he gave him a weird smile which sent a shiver down the younger one’s spin. Why was he always provoking him like this? He could still not make any sense out of his behavior, but all he knew for now was that he needed some space, but he also didn’t want to be alone which made the situation a little bit tricky. As a hand suddenly landed on the side of his hips he was ready to freak, but as he turned around he blinked in confusion as Kitayama stood in front of him.

“What are you doing here?” Kentaro asked surprised, but also kind of happy.

“Just because Ueda and Ryo send some watchdogs with you doesn’t mean that the other members are not allowed to just come by, right?” Kitayama asked with a light looking over his shoulder and Kentaro didn’t even have to turn around to see at whom he was looking.

“You want to go outside for a moment to get some fresh air?” Kitayama asked understanding and Kentaro nodded right away following him through the club until they reached the backdoor and stepped out into one of the small alleys.

“You know that we can also just leave earlier if you want!?”

“But didn’t you just come?” Kentaro asked kind of apologizing as he felt sorry for making him worry again.

“Idiot, as if that would matter!” Kitayama replied hitting him lightly against the shoulder. “By the way why didn’t Nikaido come today?”

“He is still not feeling that well. He was sick over the last days.” Kentaro answered honestly, because why should he lie? That the others would feel a little bit restless if the knew that their top fighter was sick was one thing, but Kitayama was in the same fighting class and he doubted that he would get startled by something like that.

“Then I didn’t imagine that he behaved a little bit weird over the last days after all. No wonder that he didn’t showed up for the training.” Kitayama said understanding and ruffled through the boy’s hair again as he did so often. “But thanks to that we can make our move faster than expected and without so much trouble.”

Kentaro looked at him questioning not really understanding what he was talking about, but before he could ask him the backdoor opened and Shige stepped next to them. Out of reflex Kentaro wanted to step behind Kitayama as he would normally do it, but slowly he realized what was going on and he cursed in silence that he scolded Nikaido the whole time for not trusting Kitayama. But the moment he wanted to take a step away from both of them Kitayama grabbed him by the arm pulling him closer.

“Don’t even try, trust me you won’t get far.” Kitayama said in a dangerous voice, but instead of feeling scared, anger rose inside of him and he slashed his hand away pushing him backwards. He didn’t try to run because yes they were right he wouldn’t even make it out of the alley he was aware of that.

“Oh come on, don’t look at me with those hateful eyes, boy!” Kitayama said in a played nice voice.

“Then give me just one fucking reason to not hate you for playing me like this!”

“Hey you trusted me on your free will, it’s not like I forced you to open up to me or something!”

“You planned this from the very beginning, didn’t you? You saved my life, you acted like my friend and pretended to care for my problems just to betray my trust?” Kentaro yelled at him, but as Shige took a step away from the door towards him he automatically stepped back making Kitayama laugh.

“Okay before this gets too over dramatic! You don’t have to fear Shige that much, at least not in that way, because trust me he has not a single interest in you that way!” Kitayama explained and at least this piece of the puzzle made sense to Kentaro now, after he had wondered from the very beginning why Shige was acting like this even though he seemed to not want to. “We just needed something to make you trust me more so that you wouldn’t get suspicious of me through Nikaido’s warnings.”

“So that you entered the training room when Shige and I were alone was not a coincidence I guess!” Kentaro said knowing the answer already.

“Enough of the explanation Kitayama. We don’t have so much time! This is all risky enough for bringing the wrong person in the first place.” Shige interfered, making Kentaro look at him confused.

“The wrong person?” Kentaro repeated before he could finally make sense out of at least a small part of what was going on. “You wanted to get Nikaido from the very beginning!?” Kentaro finally realized gaining an arrogant chuckle from Kitayama in return.

“Such a bright spark, aren’t you?”

“What are you up to?” Kentaro asked panicked now taking a step backwards thinking about running, now that he knew that Nikaido was their actual target. But the alley was a dead end to the side he was standing at and the other side was blocked by them. And who was he kidding, how would he be able to win against two class 5 fighters?

“Kid would you stop asking unnecessary questions, as if we would tell you all this stuff now!” Shige hissed at him annoyed taking another step towards him. Kentaro figured that he just had to play for a little bit more time until someone would definitely come and search for him, but of course the other two were aware of that as well and as Kitayama approached him suddenly, he wanted to lunge out for a punch, but Kitayama blocked it easily. Too easily, but fact was that Kentaro was still too confused about what was going on and he had tried to convince Nikaido all the time that there was no reason to mistrust Kitayama and even though he had just betrayed him, Kentaro couldn’t find the strength to fight back as serious as he wanted. Kitayama grabbed his arm after he had blocked his punch and twisted it on his back holding him in place with his other hand grabbing his hair forcefully.

“Don’t take it too personally okay? I was really happy that you trusted me like this!” Kitayama said making it sound really convincing, but Kentaro knew better and he cursed at him as he tried to make him move forward as Shige had already turned around to lead the way. But they were stopped sooner than expected as Fuma jumped out the backdoor followed by Taiga, blocking their way. It was obvious that they had searched for Kentaro, but they didn’t expect to find him trapped in such a situation. So unfortunately Shige reacted before they could even make sense out of the situation. He attacked Fuma straight on who succeeded in dodging his punch, but he didn’t see the kick coming which followed next and crushed him into one of the metal trash bins standing at the side of the alley. Taiga tried to use Shige’s distraction to attack from behind, but Shige was faster and spun around blocking his attack and before Fuma was back on his feet to help he had grabbed Taiga by the hair and slammed his head against the wall.

“TAIGA!” Kentaro tried to free himself as he saw how his friend slid to the ground unconscious, but Kitayama wouldn’t let go of him that easily.

“Kentaro, what is going on?” Fuma shouted over to him as he circled around Shige trying to not get hit by a straight attack knowing that he could end up like Taiga with the next wrong move.

“Nothing you would need to know!” Shige growled at him before attacking again and even though Fuma was able to block his attack his counter attacks weren’t strong enough to turn the fight around.

“Don’t you have awesome friends? Let’s hope Nikaido treasures you the same!” On Kitayama’s words Kentaro’s anger rose again, but as he finally succeeded to twist himself away from Kitayama to attack he heard Fuma scream out and as he turned towards him he saw how he crashed against the wall holding one arm over his ribs and before he could get away, Shige kicked him once more and this time he spitted blood before sliding down to the ground.

“No, stop it!” Kentaro wanted to rush over to help him, but Kitayama stopped him.

“If you want us to stop how about you finally stop resisting and just come with us?”

Kentaro stayed silent for a moment not sure what to do, but looking down at his friends he didn’t know another way out anymore. Sure he could keep fighting, but he would end up the same way and he would risk their lives as well.

“No Kentaro, don’t listen to them!” Fuma yelled between his painful coughing, but he couldn’t even get back into a standing position and as he tried to somehow stop Shige from walking away from him the latter turned around ready to kick him again, but before he could do so he found himself slammed into the wall next to Fuma.

“Great! That’s why I said we should hurry!” Shige growled angry as he turned around to face his opponent which was none other than Senga. But something was weird as he was breathing hard already and it seemed difficult for him to keep his balance. Sure he had been drinking as well, but so had Fuma and normally the younger one got affected by it more and Senga hadn't drunken as much as him.

“If I would have known that you two work together I would have never accepted a drink from you!” Senga hissed at Shige who looked back at him with a satisfied smile.

“Why not? You don’t like the way my special drink makes you feel? You seemed to have a lot of fun until now!”

Senga lunged out again, but this time Shige was faster blocking his attack and sending him to the ground with his counter attack. Shige seemed more than sure that he wouldn’t stand up again, but to his surprise he jumped up attacking again.

“You’re really stubborn you know that?” Shige yelled at him before sending him to the ground again.

Shige tried to pass him and Kitayama pushed Kentaro forward as well who had turned completely pale not knowing what to do anymore, but Senga got to his feet once more grabbing Shige by the collar.

“I won’t let you lay a finger on our fighters again! I’ll bring them all back!” Senga hissed at him before he turned to face Kentaro with a determination in his eyes which made Kentaro shiver. “I promised that.”

“Oh how cute!” Kitayama suddenly interfered. "Shige get him out of our way, now!"

Shige tried to punch him again, but Senga fought back with every remaining power ge could somehow find in his body making it hard for Shige to finally get him out of their way. Kentaro could feel how Kitayama's grip on him went tighter and then he removed one hand with an annoyed flick of his tongue, but then he seemed to hesitate for a moment, but before Kentaro could even try to use the chance to get away from him his grip on his arm had gotten more violent again and he used even more force than he would normally need to hold him in place.

“I have enough of this shit! All you stupid fighters with your pride! We have more important things to do. Shige out of the way!”

Kentaro looked at Senga as he was standing in front of him with wide eyes and of course he had heard the familiar metallic sound as Kitayama had moved one hand to the front, but it was already too late as reality caught up to him.

Senga was still standing, but slowly he moved one hand towards his chest and as he pressed it against the fabric of his shirt it slowly turned red. For a moment Kentaro couldn’t clearly hear on his right ear as a piercing pain shot through his ear and as he finally dared to look to the side he saw the gun right next to his head. The gun that Kitayama had just pulled out and with which he had shot Senga.

“No-“ Kentaro shook his head whispering the same word over and over again as he looked at Senga in terror. But even though Senga was looking at him, his eyes were empty and there was not a single emotion left on his face, not even pain and then as the first tears escaped Kentaro’s eyes Senga fell to the ground.

“SENGA!” It was Fuma who broke the silence as he tried to crawl over to him, but Shige kicked him back against the wall.

“Let’s go!” Kitayama ordered, but as he dragged Kentaro with him the boy finally lost it. He started screaming, slashing around him and Kitayama had more than just a few problems to hold him still. Kitayama muffled him with his hand so that they wouldn’t get noticed by more people even sooner. There were definitely enough people which have heard the gun shot so they had to hurry.

“Shige would you mind?” Kitayama asked and Shige understood right away as he took a hold of Kentaro muffling him right away as he tried to scream out for Senga again. He watched Kitayama with hateful eyes as he moved over to Fuma and grabbed the boy, which was almost unconscious by now, by the hair. Kentaro could see that he said something to him, but he couldn’t hear what and as he let go of him again he walked over to Taiga lifting him up from the ground throwing him over his shoulder.

“Ehm, what are you doing?” Shige asked annoyed as he tried to drag Kentaro with him out the alley.

“Bringing a present!” Kitayama replied with an evil smile. “He will be already pissed enough about us bringing just the bait, so I guess bringing a present might calm him down a little bit.”

“You are really cruel, you know that?” Shige said taunting and even though Kentaro wasn’t quite sure about who they were talking he didn’t want them to drag even more of his friends into this. He bit on Shige’s hand with so much force that the latter screamed out and let go of him.

“Let him go!” He shouted at Kitayama as he tried to get a grip on Taiga, but then there was a sharp pain next to his neck and the last thing he saw before sliding to the ground was Kitayama’s arrogant smile turning into an almost apologizing look.

“You could have told me that you brought that! It could have saved us a lot of trouble.” Kitayama scolded Shige who was now lifting Kentaro up from the ground after injecting a shot with narcotics into his neck to finally make the boy stop struggling.

“Hey you were the one who spent so much time talking with the boy, not me!”

“Yeah I know, maybe I really got too fond of him after all!” Kitayama admitted before he passed Shige so that his partner couldn’t see that his ironic smile changed into a kind of guilty expression. “Anyways let’s go!”

***

Nikaido had rested in his own room for the rest of the day, but even though he would normally be able to sleep with his fever being gone he couldn’t. As much as he wanted to deny that he worried, he did. As he always worried when he wasn’t with Kentaro, especially after all the incidents which occurred over the last months. And even though he knew that Kentaro would scold him he was thinking about just taking a look if they wouldn’t be back already. But as he was already walking down the corridor he heard noises downstairs feeling stupid for worrying like this so much. He was about to just turn around again not wanting Kentaro to know that he stayed awake the whole time waiting for him, but then he realized that something wasn’t right as he heard people running around, some other shouting and so he decided to take a look after all.

“What do you mean with Nakai and Kimura are not here at the moment?”

“They left for some meeting earlier and said they won’t be back until the morning.”

“What timing! Then let’s wake up Ryo and Ueda for now!”

“Wait! Do you really think it is a good idea to tell Ueda, he will most likely freak!”

“Then shall we wake up Nikaido instead and tell him?”

“Tell me what?” Nikaido had heard them shouting the whole way down to the med room and was now standing in front of a really pale looking Yuma and a completely over challenged looking Kochi. “What is going on?” He asked more directly as none of them seemed willing to answer. But before he could scold them again his look fell on Kochi’s shirt and that was when he had to try hard not to freak before hearing what had happened.

“Kochi is that blood on your shirt?”

“Not my own-”

“Whose is it then? What-“

He was interrupted by a scream coming out of the med room and even though Yuma and Kochi would have liked to stop him as he ran passed them they knew that they couldn’t, he would find out sooner or later anyways.

“Fuma you have to lie down again, please!”

As Nikaido stepped into the room he saw how most of the boys were gathered inside, Juri trying to get Fuma away from someone lying on the bed, but because everyone else was standing around it, he couldn’t see who it was. He could see that Fuma was hurt badly, but he wouldn’t let himself get dragged away, burring his face on the side of the other one’s shoulder.

“It’s my fault! If I would have been just a little bit stronger all of this wouldn’t have happened!” Fuma whimpered between his sobs and slowly Nikaido dared to step closer.

“Nikaido…” Kento was the first one to notice him and the others turned towards him as well. A few of them with a shocked almost panicked expression, a few others with eyes filled with sorrow.

“What is going on?” He asked trying hard to stop his voice from shaking even though he still didn’t know what had happen. The moment everyone stepped away from the bed, was the same moment as Yuma and Kochi entered the room with Ueda and Nishikido and for a moment no one moved. The only sound which was heard were Fuma’s sobs who still didn’t dare to move away.

“That’s not true-“ It was Ueda who spoke up first while Nikaido moved towards the bed with slow steps. He stretched out his hand to touch his friend’s cheek, but he withdrew it right away as he felt how cold his skin was. He looked so calm and if there wouldn’t be so much blood covering his shirt, everyone would have thought he was sleeping.

“Senga...“ Nikaido let out with a shuddering breath and it was then that Fuma finally realized that he was standing next to him. Before anyone could stop him he threw himself on his knees in front of Nikaido.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I couldn’t- I just-“ Fuma’s voice broke and he tried to suppress his painful gasping which mixed with his sobs, but he still refused to lift his head. Everyone was staring at them, but just for a moment longer Nikaido didn’t move. He looked at Fuma before turning towards Senga again stroking over his hair with a sorrowful expression, which turned into a faint smile to everyone’s surprise.

“I don’t know what happened, but trust me I know that you are not at fault!” He said in a calm voice, crouching down next to Fuma to pattern his hair. Fuma’s sobs just got louder on that, but he finally let the others drag him to another bed as Nikaido lifted him up from the ground.

“He was always the type to come to everyone’s rescue, even though he wanted to pretend to be the tough, emotionless and cool guy. But who are we kidding? We all know that he was an overemotional chaotic idiot!” Nikaido was the only one who chuckled on his own words, a bitter chuckle. “I told him to protect all of you if something would happen, but he forgets to take care of himself over stuff like that sometimes!” Nikaido clenched his fists trying to stop them from shaking, but it wouldn’t work. “And this time I can’t even hit you and tell you what a huge idiot you are and that you should be more careful from now on!” Nikaido let out between gritted teeth as he tried desperately to stop his voice from breaking, but it was already too late. No one dared to say something as a single tear dropped to the ground.

Just for a moment longer they all wanted to give him the chance to mourn his friend’s death before he had to face the rest of this evening’s happenings. Ueda and Nishikido talked to the others about what they knew, but the only one who had actually the information they all needed was Fuma.

“Hey, how is he?” Tegoshi asked as he rushed in with the doc following him after Ueda had woken him up earlier to get the doc as fast as possible. The doc examined Fuma right away as the boy was about to lose consciousness. Tegoshi however had frozen to the spot as his look fell on Senga. As Ueda told him to get the doc he had just said something about Fuma being hurt not knowing about Senga at that moment either.

“Oh watch out, someone catch him!” Ryusei shouted suddenly and luckily Yuma and Kochi were fast enough to catch Tegoshi as he blacked out without any kind of warning.

“Put him on a free bed. He will be fine in a while again!” Ueda told them and they lifted him up to carry him over to one of the beds on the opposite side of the room. Nikaido knew that it was hard for him as well to lose Senga. He had been in the same club with him way longer after all.

“Nikaido!” Fuma let out in a weak voice making Nikaido finally realize that he couldn’t just stand around here while someone was waiting for him. He walked over to the bed and waited until the doc finally gave Fuma an injection moving aside telling them that he might lose consciousness soon if he wouldn’t rest enough. “Kitayama and Shige were deceiving us the whole time!” Fuma explained and even though Nikaido wasn’t surprised about Kitayama at all he cursed for not realizing that Shige was part of whatever was going on. Ueda stepped closer as well now that Fuma explained what had happened, but his voice got weaker after a moment, it was obviously painful for him to continue.

“Did they tell you where they would bring them and especially why they took them?” Ueda asked trying to keep his calm after hearing that as far as they knew Taiga was unconscious over the whole time and he could just hope that he was alright.

“Kitayama said something about Taiga being a present, because they would make someone angry by bringing the bait instead of the person they were supposed to bring.”

“Which would be?” Nishikido asked this time, shifting impatiently after hearing that he was at fault for all this as well as he hasn’t realized earlier that one of their new fighters had been up to something. Fuma lifted his hand and pointed at Nikaido who didn’t look surprised at all. Hearing all of this woke up some dark hidden memories. Something that had been stored in a cage which Kitayama had already ripped open a little bit, but not so far to get suspicious enough to stop him from the very beginning. He didn’t want it to be true, it just couldn’t be.

“The underground is your family and you have to protect it. So if you want yours back you have to come and fight the battle from which you have run away before.” Fuma said making everyone stare at him in confusion. “That was what Kitayama told me to tell you.”

“Nikaido?” Ueda asked carefully as he got pale through what he had just heard. So nothing that had happened had been a coincidence. Kitayama had given away his identity from the very beginning and Nikaido couldn’t hate himself enough for running away from this possibility. Since he had told him those words his past tried to catch up to him, but he was too afraid to let it happen, shutting this part out completely, which resulted in everything turning even worse through his carelessness. He turned around aiming for the door without saying another word, but Ueda stopped him or at least he tried.

“Ueda out of my way or I’ll get violent!” Nikaido said in a dangerous voice, but Ueda didn’t move.

“Would you tell us first what is going on? Maybe when can help?”

“Help? Senga tried to help! So no I’m not telling you anything and none of you is going to help!” He shouted at him making it clear to everyone that whatever was going on would get even worse from now on. He tried to pass Ueda again, but the trainer wouldn’t let him and for a moment they struggled until Nikaido got the upper hand punching Ueda so hard that Nishikido had to catch him.

“I won’t let any of you run into your own death!” Nikaido said finally before he dashed out the room. This time no one stopped him and for a moment everyone stayed silent until Ueda started moving as well. Nishikido stopped him right away looking at him questioning and also warning.

“I know this is much to ask of with us to not being really that friendly with each other for all those years, but until Nakai and Kimura are back could you take a look at our fighters as well?” Ueda asked making everyone stare at him. Nishikido looked at him in disbelieve. For a moment he didn’t want to let go of him knowing what he was planning, but in the end he gave in and nodded.

"But jsut for now! Don't you dare to make me regret it!" Which meant don't you dare to die in plain terms and Ueda nodded before moving over to the door.

“Let us help as well!” Juri asked as Ueda was about to leave the room, but Ueda shook his head.

“No! As Nikaido said this is too dangerous and it has nothing to do with you! Two people, which should have nothing to do with it are already involved, that’s more than enough!” Ueda warned them and he knew that Nishikido would make sure that they wouldn’t follow him. As he closed the door behind him he took another deep breath before he started running after Nikaido. For all those years Senga had been the only one who knew more about Nikaido’s background and even he didn’t know all of it and now without any kind of warning his past was about to destroy everything and Ueda wouldn’t let this happen. He was going to protect Taiga, that was out of question, but he was also going to protect Nikaido and Kentaro, because those two idiots always tried to handle everything on their own, but just this one time Nikaido was more than overestimating his own strength or more like the ability to be able to fight when he had so much to struggle with when he would face his past again.


	11. Chapter 11

 

As Kentaro opened his eyes again he had a breaking headache and a dull numb on his neck, but as he looked around and found himself eye to eye with Kitayama after turning around on the couch he was lying on, he ignored the pain and jumped up right away. But he regretted it just seconds later as his legs gave in and he found himself on the ground.

“Hey take it slow, you will hurt yourself.” Kitayama scolded him as he got up from the couch chair next to him and tried to help him stand up again, but Kentaro slashed his hand away glaring at him with hateful eyes.

“Don’t dare to touch me!”

“Oh come on, now you are a sore loser or what?” The next time Kitayama grabbed him and ignored his weak struggling to put him back on the couch. “Take it easy, in your condition you won’t make it even five meters on your feet.”

“Where is Taiga?”

“There!”

To Kentaro’s surprise he pointed towards another couch a few meters away on which Taiga was lying still unconscious. Kentaro tried to stand up again, but Kitayama pushed him down again.

“I told you to take it ea-“

“SHUT UP!” Kentaro yelled at him while pushing him away. Unable to stand up he let himself drop to the couch again his eyes throwing daggers at the older one. “How dare you speak to me all caring after you hurt my friends, lied to me the whole time and betrayed the club?!”

“Hey it’s not like I planned to do all this! Okay I planned intruding the club, but the rest were all coincidences. Our target was Nikaido all along, but you know yourself the best how hard it is to get to him and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that you could be kind of helpful to us.” For a moment he paused and he looked away, but Kentaro was too angry to interpret anything good in the change on his face. “Anyways I would have liked to bring Nikaido directly, because now we all have to suffer under Fujigaya’s mood swings!”

“Fujigaya? Who the hell is that?” Kentaro hissed at him between gritted teeth. He would love to jump up, grab Taiga and leave this place, but being unable to even stand properly this plan was no use. He looked around the room once more and it looked like a high class bar with a small stage at one end and a casino corner, which was as well, as Kentaro remembered the underground places around Tokyo, forbidden business and that was also when he realized what was going on.

“You are a part of the yakuza troop Nikaido was involved with before!”

“Yes and no!” Kitayama said without even trying to cover up that this place was illegal after all. “I am a member of this group just for a few years now, so is Shige, so we never met Nikaido before.”

“And what the hell do you want from him when you don’t even know him?”

“It was an order from Fujigaya to bring him!”

“And that would be who?” Kentaro asked again, not even sure anymore if he wanted to know as he remembered the few things he already knew about Nikaido’s past.

“You’ll know in a few minutes!” Shige interrupted them as he walked inside through a heavy wooden double-door which seemed to connect to a corridor to the main entrance of the club, but as he closed the door again he locked it moving over to Taiga.

“Leave him alone!” Kentaro shouted at him, but as he tried to get up again Kitayama pushed him back with so much force that he hit his head on the edge of the armchair and let out a sharp breath. To his surprise Kitayama’s look seemed kind of apologizing, but turned to stone again as he turned towards Shige.

“He didn’t wake up until now. It might be the best to let him sleep until everyone is here.” Kitayama suggested before walking away from Kentaro, but turned around once more. “Remember this before you do something stupid!” He warned him before he showed him the gun hidden under his jacket and even though Kentaro doubted that he would dare to shoot him like this, at least as long as Nikaido wasn’t here he was taken aback for now. The next moment he heard another door open and as he looked over the small stage he saw how a few people entered to a backdoor, forming a row waiting for the last person to pass them before they followed him. Shige and Kitayama had walked up to him as well as he sat down on a big wine-red armchair on a small platform next to the stage from where he could see the whole club. So at least Kentaro didn’t have to ask who he was anymore, because it was more than obvious.

“Kitayama! Shige!” Fujigaya ordered his two men to his side, but was looking at Kentaro instead. Even though his stare was intense Kentaro didn’t look away and it seemed like it was waking the other one’s interest. “I wonder how you could mistake the strongest fighter of the northern fight club with this boy!” He said ironic crossing his legs as he finally looked away facing Kitayama instead.

“It was kind of difficult to get close enough to Nikaido, but we found out that he is sick at the moment and an easier target.”

“And?” Fujigaya asked kind of impatient and Kitayama swallowed hard before continuing.

“Instead of waiting until the tournament is over to get to him when he is be injured we thought we would lure him here with him as the bait. Now that he isn’t at full strength we will be able to overpower him.”

Fujigaya escaped a small chuckle, but he didn’t seem angry.

“Then tell me why would he come for a boy like him?”

“Nikaido is this boy’s protector and they are together in private as well.”

This time Fujigaya’s chuckle turned into a huge laughter as he clapped his hands jumping up from his chair walking over to Kentaro with fast steps. Kentaro wasn’t sure what he should do, but trying to run away was out of question so he just froze to the spot as Fujigaya stopped right in front of him and grabbed his chin to lift his head up.

“I wonder what is so special about you that you made my strongest man fall for you.” Fujigaya said in a mocking voice and Kentaro would have liked to slash his hand away, but he screamed at his body to hold still to not make the situation even worse. He could feel that there was something dark and dangerous about this man and he hoped that all he had to do was playing for time. “You must know he wasn’t that found of my choice of partners back then, so I wonder what made him choose you.”

Kentaro looked at him confused, but he didn’t even want to ask further and Fujigaya let go off him the next moment, turning around to leave for his chair again as he stopped next to Taiga which he hadn’t seen until now.

“Who’s the blond boy?” Fujigaya asked with some kind of excitement in his voice as he approached him.

“A present for bringing the wrong person.”

“Kitayama I have to say you have a really good eye for presents.” Fujigaya congratulated him as he sat down next to him on the couch and stroke a strain of hair out of his face and that was when Kentaro could finally make the connection to what Fujigaya had said about his choice of partners.

“Don’t touch him!” Kentaro shouted before he could stop himself, but as he tried to jump up he had to reach out for the armchair right away to not fall. The few men standing next to Kitayama and Shige had moved right away, but Fujigaya held his hand up signaling them that there was no need to interfere.

“Oh boy I would say that is not for you to decide!” Fujigaya replied with a mocking smile before he put his hand on Taiga’s cheek making Kentaro curse. He tried to make another step and this time he dared to let go of the armchair and he really succeeded in making a few steps towards him, but even if he would be able to reach him he wouldn’t even be able to do anything at all as his body still felt numb and heavy and after another step his legs gave in again and he landed perfectly in front of Fujigaya.

“Oh how cute you are! So I guess he is a friend of yours, right? Don’t worry I take good care of my presents!” He said chuckling as he stroke over Taiga’s hair and the boy let out a small groan, but still didn’t open his eyes.

“I told you not to touch him!” Kentaro repeated and grabbed Fujigaya’s leg. The next moment Fujigaya was on his feet looking down at Kentaro in amusement before his face darkened and he lifted him up from the ground by the collar.

“I think I get why Nikaido likes you! You are as annoying as him when it is about friendship! But don’t rely on him too much or he will betray you as he did with his family.” Fujigaya growled at him dangerously as if he would be at fault for that.

“You mean your stupid yakuza troop? Sorry but I can totally understand that he didn’t want to cherish you that much!” Kentaro let out with a steady voice looking Fujigaya directly into the eyes.

“Oh and how come you know that? Did he tell you about his life here or about what he did?”

Kentaro stayed silent biting his lip, because truth was now that he finally got at least a small part of what was going on he wasn’t sure if he should be angry at Nikaido for not telling him.

“Thought so!” Fujigaya let out with a low chuckle before throwing him on the ground turning around. “Kitayama you really brought a troublemaker here, I hope for you that he is important enough to Nikaido to make him show up here or you’ll be the one taking the punishment for it!” Fujigaya continued with a side glance at his man who bowed apologizing before looking over to Kentaro who had sat up again.

“Kentaro?” On the sound of Taiga’s voice Kentaro turned around panicked. He had hoped that he wouldn’t wake up so soon. “What is going on? Where are we?” Taiga sat up immediately as he realized that they weren’t alone and as he saw Shige and Kitayama his eyes threw daggers at them.

“Don’t!” Kentaro tried to stop him as he was about to jump up obviously about to attack them, but as Kentaro tried to stand up he had to grab Taiga by the shoulders to be able to stand.

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Taiga asked worried as he helped his friend to sit on the couch. He still felt slightly dizzy himself, but the adrenaline helped him to ingore it for now.

“Don’t worry your friend will be okay. The narcotics were just a little bit too strong you can blame that on Shige I guess.” Fujigaya explained as he approached them again now scanning Taiga from head to toe as he stepped closer. Out of reflex Taiga stepped in front of his friend and Kentaro tried to make him back off without success.

“Who are you?” Taiga hissed at him moving into a defense stance right away, but Fujigaya just started laughing at the boy’s behavior.

“First, I’m not in the mood to explain details to you here and second you shouldn’t even think about attacking me or it will be the last thing you will ever do!” Fujigaya warned him as he took another step forward. Taiga backed off a step looking over to Kitayama and the others before turning towards Kentaro who was shaking his head at him, making clear that he also didn’t know what to do. Before Taiga could calculate their chances though, Fujigaya had grabbed a fistful of his hair pulling him closer. Out of reflex Taiga lunged out for a punch, but to his surprise Fujigaya stopped it in his palm without a problem.

“For a present you are kind of rebellious you know?”

“Present my ass and now let go!” Taiga yelled at him trying to attack him again, but before he could do so Fujigaya punched him under the ribs making him gasp. Against his appearance he was really strong and Taiga needed a moment to fill his lunges with air again.

“Careful with your choice of words!” Fujigaya let out between gritted teeth as he pulled Taiga up on his hair again. “Maybe you need a small lesson about respect!”

“Let him go!” Kentaro tried to interfere as Fujigaya dragged Taiga with him, but the moment he was on his feet he got a kick in his stomach sending him to the ground coughing.

“KENTARO!” Taiga wanted to help him, but Fujigaya ignored his struggling and dragged him over to the stage throwing him to the ground. He gave two of his men a signal and they rushed over taking a hold on Taiga before he could get up again.

“Kitayama you brought this troublemaker here, so now make sure that he doesn’t interfere!” Fujigaya ordered him pointing on Kentaro who was back on his feet ready to attack again, screaming at his legs to finally move steady and to his surprise he could finally take a few steps without his legs giving in, but before he could reach them Kitayama had taken a hold on him.

“LET GO!” Kentaro yelled at him, but his strength was still not enough to fight him off.

“Boy how about you save yourself the trouble? As more you go on my nerves the more I’ll consider punishing you as well!” Fujigaya warned him before stretching out his hand towards Shige which moved away from him first, just to get some wooden branch and handed it Fujigaya.

“You know I’m normally not that nice to people which are not able to play by my rules. It is not like I wouldn’t have enough other weapons and methods to punish you even worse.” Fujigaya crouched down in front of Taiga who was sitting on his knees with the two men holding him down. Fujigaya grabbed him by the chin so that he had to face him. “But let’s say this way it is a little bit more fun!” He stroke with the end of the stick over Taiga’s cheek who tried to turn his face away. The stick was thin and flexible and as Fujigaya let go of Taiga and stood up again he slashed it down over the boy’s face without any hesitation. Taiga escaped a small scream on the sudden sharp pain and Kentaro looked at him with wide eyes, but didn’t dare to say anything, afraid of making the situation even worse. A thin line of blood got visible on Taiga’s cheek, but his look remained the same and it was obvious that Fujigaya got annoyed by it.

“Strip him off his shirt!” Fujigaya ordered his men suddenly and even though Taiga tried to fight them off he couldn’t. He felt how fear was about to paralyze his body as they ripped his shirt apart as he didn’t let them take it off another way. “Turn him around!”

"STOP IT!" This time Kentaro couldn't stay silent anymore, but Fujigaya completely ignored him as he brought the branch down on Taiga’s back several times without a break and even though it was really painful Taiga tried to not scream out. He bit his lip with so much force that it started bleeding.

“So you want to play tough?” Fujigaya asked amused after slashing over his back once more gaining a sharp breath from Taiga, but not more. Fujigaya walked in front of him once more lifting up his head. “How about you just apologize for your rude behavior, then I might stop!”

“Screw you!” Taiga shot back at him on which Fujigaya lifted an eyebrow in amusement.

“So you want it the hard way, I see. Strip him off his pants as well!”

“No stop it! Please, stop!” Kentaro interfered with a shaking voice trying to rip himself out of Kitayama’s grip again as he saw Taiga’s panicked look the moment the two men lifted him up from the ground. If shouting wouldn't work, he would start begging. Taiga was struggling like crazy his breathing pace turning way too fast and irregular. “Leave him alone! STOP IT!”

“Kentaro shut it!” Kitayama hissed at him trying to muffle him with his hand, but Kentaro’s strength came back more and more so that he wouldn’t let himself get stopped like this and continued screaming at Fujigaya who observed Taiga with a kind of weird satisfaction as he struggled with all his might against the grip of the two men, when he suddenly lifted his hand making his men stop right before they finally succeeded to undress Taiga. He turned towards Kentaro with a dark expression pointing out at him.

“Bring him over!”

“Fujigaya, don’t you think it is better to leave him alone until Nikaido is here?” Kitayama tried to negotiate with his boss to Kentaro’s surprise, but as Fujigaya’s look got even more dangerous he finally moved, pushing Kentaro towards the stage.

“Oh don’t worry I’m not planning on doing something to him I just want him to have a better look!” Fujigaya said before he ordered his men to bring Taiga next to them forcing him back on his knees. “You know for two saplings which know absolutely nothing about in what a mess you got yourself into, you have a really big mouth!”

Fujigaya was about to turn to Taiga again, but before he could reach out for him again Kentaro had taken Kitayama by surprise and finally twisted himself out of his grip, jumping on the stage.

“No Kentaro, stop!” Taiga had seen on Fujigaya’s face that he had seen this coming. He swirled around lunging out with the branch for Kentaro and it hit with a loud slap, but not where he had aimed. Kentaro had caught the branch with his hand holding on to it with a shaking and bleeding hand not willing to let go of it.

“Full of surprises aren’t you?” Fujigaya asked amused, but with a hint of anger. “You remind me a lot of Nikaido when he was younger, when he was still trustworthy and would do everything to rescue the ones close to him.”

“That’s still who he is!” Kentaro growled at him, but Fujigaya just started laughing ripping the branch out of the boy’s hand, making him gasp on the sudden pain.

“As I said you have no clue what is going on! Trust me you don’t even know him. He isn’t the white knight you might think-”

“I know him better than you do!” Kentaro interrupted him, jumping back as Fujigaya lunged out with the branch again, but missed this time. Shige made a step forward, but Fujigaya signaled him and his other men to not interfere.

“Oh you do, really?” Fujigaya asked as he took another step towards him, but this time Kentaro didn’t step back. “Then tell me do you know what he did over the time as he was one of my men? How many people he hurt on my command? Or how he dared to betray me in the end and how he-“

“I don’t care!” Kentaro interrupted him again and this time Fujigaya lost it, trying to hit him again and as he missed he rushed forward grabbing Kentaro by the hair as he tried to get away and before Kentaro could even defend himself he punched him several times before throwing him to the ground. Kentaro tried to get up again, but as he was back in a sitting position Fujigaya kicked him back down. So at least he had figured out that his temper was the worst, not that this would help him in any way.

“I don’t know what he was like when he was with you, but I’m more than sure that it was your own fault that he turned against you in the end!” Kentaro said in a calm voice as he tried to get up again.

“Shut it boy!”

“Why? Because I’m saying the truth? You try to bring Nikaido back here to punish him for betraying you? Or do you want to get rid of him, because you fear that something will come to light sooner or later as long as you don’t have him under control?”

Again Fujigaya tried to kick him, but Kentaro was fast enough to block at least his first kick, but he slashed down with the branch over his shoulder and used his distraction to kick him into the face. This time Kentaro remained on the floor for a moment trying to get his orientation back. He felt a sharp pain on the left side of his jaw, but he tried to ignore it for now.

“Kitayama, give me your gun!”

“What?” Kitayama didn’t dare to move as if he would have heard wrong.

“Give me your fucking gun I said!” Fujigaya yelled at him and slowly Kitayama pulled it out and handed it over to him.

“No! Leave him alone, please!” Taiga begged him, but Fujigaya ignored him completely as he walked over to Kentaro crouching down over him and lifted him up by the collar. He placed the gun under his chin looking at him with an expression which showed that he was more than dead serious about pulling the trigger if he would dare to provoke him again.

“It will be a real pleasure to kill you as soon as you are not needed anymore!”

Kentaro was about to counter something, but then there was an impact on the locked main door and then another one. On the third one the huge double door broke open reviling Nikaido and Ueda.

“Speaking of a time when I don’t need you anymore!” Fujigaya said satisfied and unlocked the gun all of a sudden.

“STOP!” Nikaido shouted through the room, but didn’t dare to step closer. Ueda needed a moment to finally get what was going on and as he spotted Taiga sitting on the stage with wounds all over his body he wanted to step forward, but Nikaido stopped him right away.

“What is it Nikaido? You want to keep your little pet?” Fujigaya asked more than amused before he stood up dragging Kentaro up with him, pointing the gun to his head. “You still owe me a life!”

“No not anymore!”

Kentaro wasn’t sure what shocked him more. The fact that Fujigaya’s words meant that Nikaido had killed someone if what he said was true or that Nikaido’s words had just made him realize something horrible.

“Senga…” He let out in a low voice and he could see in Nikaido’s eyes that his thought was right. He had tried to run away from this possibilty since he had woken up again, somehow hoping that he might have survived, but reality crushed on him with all its might.

“Oh and you guess now we are even or what? Don’t make me laugh!” Fujigaya hissed at him.

“You want me, right? Here I am, so do what you want with me, but let the two boys go! They have absolutely nothing to do with this!”

“Oh and Wataru had something to do with it back then?” Fujigaya shouted at him moving his hand closer to the trigger. Taiga looked panicked from Ueda to Kentaro knowing that he couldn’t interfere and that Ueda could also do nothing at the moment. Nikaido was the only one who could do something, maybe.

Nikaido had fallen silent on Fujigaya mentioning Wataru’s name and even though Kentaro didn’t know what was going on he knew that there was more behind this as they could discuss in such an explosive situation. There was no way that he would have just killed someone and ran off like this, especially not with someone dangerous like Fujigaya watching all his steps as the boss of their troop. But whatever it had been, it was a heavy enough burden for Nikaido to leave everything behind and hide for years. And ending up right in front of Fujigaya seemed to make it hard for him to think rational as his past tried to break him.

“What is it? Did I leave you speechless?” Fujigaya asked sarcastic, but Nikaido just shook his head before his face darkened and as he looked up at them again, a shiver went down Kentaro's spine. He had never seen this look on him before.

“I said, let them go!” He said, this time taking a step towards them making Ueda look at him worried.

“Don’t come closer!” Fujigaya warned him, but there was a weird determination in Nikaido’s eyes and it scared Kentaro. Fujigaya could have ordered his men to attack Nikaido, he could have just shot Kentaro, but he did nothing except staring at him as he came closer. “I told you to stay back!” He yelled again this time taking a step backwards dragging Kentaro with him. What was he afraid of? Kentaro couldn’t really tell, maybe this was really a part he didn’t know about Nikaido's past self. He had almost lost it before, as he was fighting with Kitayama and maybe Fujigaya knew even more about this part of his personality so that he hesitated about his next step.

Then without a warning Fujigaya took the gun away from Kentaro and pointed it at Nikaido, but this time Kentaro reacted in time. He had let one of his friends die already he wouldn’t be the reason for Nikaido’s death as well. He grabbed Fujigaya’s arm and the first shot fell as the gun pointed to the ceiling.

“KENTARO!” Taiga screamed out for him as he struggled with Fujigaya over the gun. Nikaido and Ueda dashed forward next. Ueda ran directly for the stage and freed Taiga before Fujigaya’s men could even get any other weapons out to defend themselves.

Unfortunately Nikaido was stopped by Kitayama and Shige before he could reach Fujigaya and the rest of their men blocked Ueda's and Taiga’s way.

“Stupid boy, let go!” Fujigaya hissed at Kentaro as the second shot missed the boy’s head just by inches, but unfortunately it hit directly into the electricity case on the wall and as if it wouldn’t be bad enough that all the lights turned out leaving them in an almost pitch black room which was just lid up by a few small windows located at the ceiling, the closest curtains caught fire on the sparks.

“Taiga, wait!” Ueda had seen too late that Taiga had dashed forward on everyone’s distraction. And luckily he made it just in time as Fujigaya had finally got a grip on the gun again and threw Kentaro to the ground ready to shoot him. Taiga tackled him from the side so that he fell off the stage and crushed into one of the tables.

“Get up!” Taiga shouted at his friend helping him back up before one of the others could get a grip on them.

“Get out of my way!” Nikaido shouted at Kitayama and Shige, but they wouldn’t let him pass without a fight. Shige attacked him first, but Nikaido’s rage made him way stronger. After blocking a few punches, he lifted him over his shoulder and crushed him into the next table leaving just Kitayama between him and the others. But as he faced Kitayama next he found himself down on one knee. His breathing had turned heavy and his vision blurry, so much to him feeling alright. To his surprise Kitayama didn’t use his advantage and waited for him to be back on his feet. But before Nikaido could even attack him Kitayama got a pretty hard kick into the back throwing him to the ground, revealing Kentaro behind him who dashed over to Nikaido hugging him short, but intense.

“Are you alright?” He asked Nikaido worried, but all he got was a weird chuckle as a response, at least his look at softened again as he faced him. 

“That’s what I should ask, not you!” Nikaido replied as he took the boy’s face in his hands gaining a brief smile from Kentaro.

“Kentaro, take care of Taiga!” Ueda shouted suddenly and pushed him towards him and he had to almost catch him as he started coughing through the smoke and having trouble to remain on his feet.

“We have to get out, now!” Ueda shouted over to them as he kicked another man away. Nikaido turned towards the door and now he understood Ueda’s hurry. The fire had spread over the couches and the carpet, already attacking the wooden door and the smoke made it hard to see and even harder to breath. “Everyone out!” Ueda ordered and Nikaido made the two boys follow him until Shige and a few others were back on their feet blocking their way. Luckily they seemed even more effected by the smoke than he was so even though he had quite to struggle with his own stamina he could still fight their way closer to the door.

“Watch out!” Taiga had seen first that someone tried to attack them and he pushed Kentaro to the side falling over to the other one. Kentaro was already breathing hard as well and had a lot of trouble fighting the other one off. He backed off further with every attack and even though Taiga wanted to help him he couldn’t get back to his feet that fast. Luckily Nikaido had reacted immediately rushing back to them and sending their attacker to the ground unconsciously before Kentaro got seriously hurt. Taiga got up again about to walk over to them when Kentaro’s eyes grew wide as he looked passed him.

“TAIGA WATCH OUT!” Kentaro shouted and as Nikaido looked towards the same direction as shocked as Kentaro, Taiga knew what was going on without even turning around. Kentaro ran towards him, but the shot fell before he could reach him and for a moment silence followed. Taiga had just frozen to the spot not sure if he should try to move, but as he looked into Kentaro’s and Nikaido’s shocked eyes he realized something even more disturbing. They weren’t looking at him.

“Oh aren’t you all cute? You are all so protective of each other!” It was Fujigaya’s voice which was heard who was back on his feet with a triumphing smile, about to pull the trigger again, but Nikaido reacted immediately, grabbing a glass from the table next to him and threw it passed Taiga directly at Fujigaya's head sending him to the ground unconscious.

Taiga still didn’t dare to move even though he had already realized that he was completely fine and the first tear escaped his eye as two arms wrapped around him from behind. He grabbed his arms with shaking hands his tears dropping down on the other one’s skin. This couldn’t be, this wasn’t fair. After all they had gone through and after finally daring to take the next step regardless all the pain which connected them, this was supposed to be the way they had to part?

“I’m so sorry, Taiga!”

He wanted to hold on to him, but as he fell backwards he couldn’t take a hold on him anymore and then his arms were gone. As he finally dared to turn around a feeling of complete numbness took over him as he looked at Ueda lying on the ground.

“No...” He whispered about to break down, but before he went down Nikaido grabbed him by the shoulders turning him away from Ueda. “NO! LET GO!” He slashed around him as his mind finally caught up with everything, but his body was already too weak to struggle much longer.

“Kentaro get him out! Knock him out if you have to!” Nikaido yelled as he threw Taiga into Kentaro’s arms. Kentaro nodded at Nikaido and dragged Taiga towards the door struggling hard to make him follow him. He looked back at Nikaido who was about to lift Ueda up, but Shige and Kitayama were back on their feet as well and while Shige attacked right away Kitayama was just staring at them.

“Kentaro please let me go, please we can’t leave him behind!” Taiga begged crying desperately, but Kentaro shook his head, finally dragging him through the main door having to watch out that they wouldn’t get burned with the flames already licking the ceiling.

“Leave it to Nikaido, we have to go!” It wasn’t like he wouldn’t feel the same. He had seen how Ueda had jumped in front of Taiga at the last moment. He had seen the pain in his eyes, but also the relief as he realized that Taiga was fine. But now he had to leave Nikaido fighting alone as well and that was also ripping him apart. He looked back once more and saw how Nikaido was breathing heavy through the smoke, but seemed to win against the others, for now. After he had sent Shige and Kitayma to the ground again, this time hopefully for good he turned towards Kentaro signaling him with a movement of his hand to hurry outside, but just for a moment longer he remained like this looking at him. Nikaido gave him a brief smile before he turned to face his remaining opponents. Kentaro couldn’t explain why, but this one smile he had just given him, had been different from all the others. Even though his smile had something encouraging it also seemed like a silent apology and it made Kentaro’s legs feel weak for a moment. But as one of the doors broke out of its angles he finally kept moving, pushing Taiga towards the exit without looking back. They jumped out the main door falling to the ground coughing, but Kentaro had not much time to relax as Taiga tried to run back inside after taking a few deep breathes.

“Taiga, stop!”

“No, I’m not going to leave him behind!” Taiga shouted trying to get away from Kentaro.

"We are not leaving anyone behind! Leave it to Nikaido!"

"I have to get him out, please Kentaro..." Taiga fell to his knees hiding his face on his friend's shoulder as his strength slowly left him. Kentaro pulled him closer knowing that there were no right words to say now. Taiga whispered incomprehensible words against his shoulder as he tried to calm down, but Kentaro didn't dare to let go off him, afraid that he would try to run back inside again.

"I can't lose him, this is not fair..." Taiga's broken voice between his sobs made it hard for Kentaro to find his own voice again.

“Everything will be alright. As soon as Nikaido-“ A huge cracking noise was heard before he could end his sentence and with the next crack the whole ceiling collapsed. Kentaro let go of Taiga immediately, but the latter remained on his knees screaming. The world around Kentaro had just stopped moving the moment the flames were about to destroy even the last intact part of the building and with it Kentaro’s hopes that Nikaido would just walk out those doors bringing Ueda with him so that they could just go back and keep going like they always did, because they always went back together. They never left someone behind, never had to move on without the other person.

But this time those two boys had to stand up on their own. They had to keep moving even though their lives as they had known it had been destroyed, leaving them no choice, but to find a way to close this huge black hole inside their chests trying to completely break them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay here we are at the end of part2 and yes I know it is a cliffhanger, sorry about that :P
> 
> The third/last part (Outlaw) will follow in a while!


End file.
